Swords of a Brother Unlimited
by Animan10
Summary: The story of a hero who is now the older brother of three younger siblings. After believing to have lost them, he is reunited with them, along with meeting an even greater family to care for. That family's name is Fairy Tail. Made in collaboration with Ray O'Neill as a continuation of his one-shot "Swords of a brother".
1. Welcome Home

**Hello internet! I'm here bringing you a revival a story NOT originally created by me. Shocking, I know.**

 **Anyway, this crossover is a collaboration between myself and fellow writer,** **Ray O'Neill. About nearly two years ago, Ray posted as story by the name of Swords of a Brother", a Fairy Tail/Fate crossover in which Shirou Emiya is reborn as a fourth and new oldest Strauss sibling. After that story was completed, Ray offered anyone the chance to collaborate and expand the story for him. That is where I came in.**

 **Nearly two years later, I contact him after reading the story and request to work with him on an expansion. After several months of throwing around ideas, taking notes, an rewatching Fairy Tail from episode 1, I was able to slap together this first chapter, and take the first step in breathing new life into this old story.**

 **Before we get started, I want you all to know that updates on this story will be extremely irregular and slow. Ray and I have big things planned for this story, but this is not our only project. Longtime readers of mine will most likely know me for my current project "A Certain Strange Addition", and the same goes for Ray O'Neill and his current project "A Fake Hero". This will still be updated, but those updates will be few and far between, depending on how quickly and often we can get our act together.**

 **At this point, I would be replying to any reviews and questions readers would happen to leave behind after reading. Of course, since this is the first chapter, there are no reviews to speak of, so I'll just get to the disclaimer and let you continue to the story.**

 **Disclaimer: Neither I nor Ray O'Neill own Fate/Stay Night or Fairy Tail, or any of the series' respective characters, and we make no money from this.**

* * *

Chapter 1: Welcome Home

It had already been a full day, and Shirou could still hardly believe the miracle he had been graced with. The Kaleidoscope and the Holy Grail could suck it for all he cared, for Shriou Strauss had experienced a true miracle yesterday. After a year of believing he had lost them, a year of aimlessly wandering alone in his own sorrow, a year of living as a machine without a heart, Shirou had finally found what he had been missing. After so long, Shirou had been reunited with the people who gave him purpose, his family.

Maybe it was a coincidence or maybe it was fate, Shirou didn't care. In his quest to fulfill a dying old man's last wishes, Shirou sought out the Fairy Tail Guild to give the enslaved children he rescued a chance at a better life. When he was finally able to get the children to the guild safely, Shirou got far more from the journey than he could have ever hoped for. There in the guildhall of the Fairy Tail Guild was the family he thought he lost on that rainy day. Mirajane, Elfman, and Lisanna were all present at the guild as its most recent recruits, alive and well. The sight of his lost family brought all the color and hope back into Shirou's life. Much like when Kiritsugu saved him in his previous life, in his quest to gain salvation for someone else, Shirou found salvation for himself.

After finally being reunited with his family, Shirou knew the only option left for him was to join the Fairy Tail Guild himself. Even if there was some other option for him to take, Shirou knew he would have had no choice in the matter. As Master Makarov said himself, Shirou would have received a major beating and forced to join after the reunion he and his siblings displayed. The ensuing party to celebrate his initiation was definitely a hectic one, what with the guildhall spanning bar fight and property damage, but all that mattered for Shirou was that he had his family again, and if anything the Guild Master said was true that family might have just gotten much bigger.

With the dawn of a new day and a new life in front of him, Shirou was guided by his siblings through the streets of Magnolia to the place that would be their home. As they made their way to their home in Magnolia, Shirou carried Lisanna on his shoulders while Mirajane and Elfman each took a hold of one of his hands. To the average onlooker, it was a strange sight to see. After all, it wasn't every day you saw a heavily armored man carry an adorable little girl in a pink dress on his shoulders while holding the hands of a well-dressed young boy and a cloaked teenage girl. However, to those of the Fairy Tail Guild, it was simply the sight of a very happy family walking together.

As the Quartette strolled down the street, Shirou couldn't help but actually take a good look at the town around him. The city itself was well organized with buildings and smaller roads forming around the two central paths that cut through the city vertically and horizontally. Sprinkled across town were several canals which cut through several roads and traversed over via bridges and boats. The whole city had a western design to it, resembling a European town from the Medieval period. Other notable landmarks included the Fairy Tail Guild Hall, Kardia Cathedral, South Gate Park, and Lake Scilliora. All in all, the town was quite homey, and definitely an ideal place to raise a family in.

"We're here, Shirou-nii!" Lisanna cheered, breaking the eldest sibling away from his thoughts.

Once again consciously aware of his surroundings, Shirou couldn't help but let out an embarrassed laugh for letting himself drift off in his daydreaming. He was lucky that Mirajane and Elfman had a hold of both of his hands, otherwise he would have likely walked straight into on of the city's canals, taking Lisanna down with him. It was just so unlike him to zone out like that.

With his mind now focused, Shirou looked straight ahead to find the building that his family called home since moving to Magnolia. Sad to say, Shirou was not very pleased with what he saw. Before him was an old, rickety apartment building made from aged wood and bricks. The color of the bricks and paint were faded and a window or two appeared to be broken. Needless to say, it was not the best first impression of the house his siblings have been living in.

"This was where you've been staying all this time?" Shirou asked in disbelief.

"I know it doesn't look like much, but it's all we could afford with the money we make on jobs at the guild," Elfman explained.

Taking Lisanna off his shoulders, Shirou followed his siblings into the less than stellar building. The building's interior wasn't very reassuring, as its condition could be considered worse than that of the exterior of the building. The main hallway for the complex suffered from all the same problems as the exterior of the building, but had the additional issues of holes in the walls, floor, and ceiling, as well as ripped and faded wall paper. The flickering Light Lacrima hanging from the ceiling did very little to lessen Shirou's concerns. How the building could be considered livable in its condition was beyond him.

However, the worse crime by far was the apartment that his siblings had been living in during the year they were separated. When Mirajane opened the door to their apartment, Shirou was horrified by what he saw. It as one bedroom, one half-bathroom apartment that suffered from all of the same problems as the building's exterior and central hallway. The only traces of personal objects in the room were a short table, three futons, and a small chest that probably held all of the family's clothing. Worst of all, the apartment didn't even have a proper kitchen, just a Fire Lacrima powered portable stove.

"What do you think, Shirou-nii?" Mirajane asked timidly.

"This won't do at all," the eldest declared, "I can't believe the three of you spent an entire year living here."

"Well, it wasn't an entire year, but pretty much since we joined the guild," Mira explained.

"It was the best we could do with the money we could make," Lisanna admitted sadly, "We may be mages, but we're still kids. Not many people would trust us with the higher paying jobs, and some of them outright rejected us because of Mira-nee's arm."

Taking one last look at the place his siblings called home, Shirou made his decision.

"Alright, it's decided," Shirou declared, dropping his fist into the palm of his other hand, "I'm getting us a new apartment."

"But how are we going to pay of it?" Elfman inquired, "You only just joined the guild, so clients might not trust you with higher paying jobs yet either."

"Well, little brother, over the last year, I've worked as a freelance mercenary," Shirou explained with a smirk, pulled out a bag from under his cloak, "You'd be surprised how much people would pay for you to capture some criminals or dismantle a cabal."

Kneeling down so he was at eye level with his siblings, Shirou opened the bag to reveal his year worth of savings. To his younger siblings' collective shock, the bag was filled with hundreds of thousands of Jewels. Altogether, Shirou had saved about 1,000,000 Jewels, more than enough to cover rent at a nicer place for at least a few months before Shirou could go on the higher paying jobs that his younger siblings would normally be rejected from.

"This is amazing, Shirou-nii," Lisanna cheered, "How did you managed to save so much?"

"Well, it helps to have a minimalist lifestyle," Shirou joked with a stiff laugh, "So, you all in favor of looking for a nicer place to live?"

"Of course!" his siblings agreed wholeheartedly.

"Alright then, I'll head to the nearest real-estate agency," Shirou said as he headed for the door, only to be stopped by Mirajane pulling on his cloak."

"Not so fast, Shirou-nii!" Mira cried as she tugged, causing Shirou to fall on his back from the sudden pull, "You can't go to a real-estate agency yet! Not dressed like that!"

"Hm, I guess the cloak, hood, and battle armor are a bit intimidating," Shirou pondered aloud.

"Mira-nee is right! We need to get you properly dressed before you can start talking to anyone in real-estate," Elfman agreed, pushing his older brother up and off his back.

"Okay, I get it," Shirou chuckled, picking himself off the ground, "That should still leave plenty for an apartment. While we're at it, we might as well get you a new outfit too, Mira. We can't have you going around in that cloak all the time."

"Well, what are we waiting for?!" Mirajane asked as she started dragging her older brother out the door.

Despite how quickly Shirou was losing control of the situation, he couldn't help but laugh as he was dragged out of the apartment. This was exactly what he had been missing in his life.

* * *

It took a bit of time, but Shirou had finally been able to get an outfit that his siblings deemed appropriate. In place of his original battle armor and cloak was a grey button-down shirt, black trousers, and black shoes. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled back so his forearms were exposed, and his hair was pushed down in its usual, natural fallen style. Shirou definitely looked much more approachable than he did in his armor.

Mirajane also got a new outfit, and it was definitely a drastic shift from her previous cloak. Her new outfit consisted of a purple tank top, black short shorts, and black thigh high boots. Additional accessories included a purple ribbon to hold her hair in a pony tail and a black choker belt necklace.

Upon seeing this choose of clothing, Shirou immediately demanded that Mirajane choice a different outfit, but his sister would not budge. She spent the last year hiding behind a cloak. She wasn't about to constrain herself in her self-expression like that any time soon. While the two eldest siblings bickered for a while over Mira's choice in outfits, Shirou eventually gave in, feeling like it was a waste of time and energy to push the subject any further.

With the whole family now dressed in a manner that can be considered approachable, the Strausses started their house hunt for a new home. By some stroke of luck, the real-estate agency actually had a rather nice apartment listed for rent at a relatively cheap price. It was a one bedroom, one bath apartment located near the shopping center on Strawberry Street and bordered one of the city's canals. To apartment itself had pure white walls, was move-in ready, and was equipped with a brick fireplace and stove. All of this came with a monthly rent of 70,000 Jewels.

While the apartment was still relatively small with only one bedroom, it still had a great location for a great price. Not only that, but the interior was miles better than what they currently had (which admittedly was not hard to beat). Besides, it's not like they were planning to stay there their entire life in Magnolia, just until they could get the money to buy their own home. After discussing their terms with a rather stout and intimidating landlady, the Strausses were ready to move into their new home.

By nightfall, the family had completely moved into their new apartment. After moving their few personal items from the old apartment to the new apartment, the Strausses bought a few more necessities to fill their new home. Among them were additional sets of clothes, a stockpile of food, cooking ware, and an additional futon. In the end, Shirou still had about 800,000 Jewels left in his savings, more enough to help him and his family get by comfortably while they work towards getting a house of their own.

That night, Shirou went all out with the evening meal, preparing all of his family's favorite foods. For the first time in over a year, the family sat together for a meal. For the first time in over a year, the family was able to enjoy Shirou's amazing cooking. For the first time in over a year, the family felt like they were home.

* * *

The following day was Shirou's first day as a Fairy Tail mage. When he first approached the front door of the guildhall with his siblings, he was greeted by none other than Master Makarov himself.

"Ah, there you are, Shirou," the Guild Master greeted with a smile, "You had me worried when none of you showed up to the guild yesterday. I almost though you had gone and try to run away with three of my children."

"Sorry to worry you, Master," Shirou apologized with a bow.

"We were just showing Shirou-nii around town," Elfman explained.

"Yeah, and it kind of turned into a sort of lifestyle renovation project," Mira admitted sheepishly.

"I can see that," Makarov said with a smile, noticing the change in uniform for the elder Strauss siblings, "Welcome to the guild, Shirou! Your looking much better, and far less scary!"

"Did I really look that scary before?" Shirou whispered to his siblings.

"Kind of," Elfman replied with a slight nod.

"If we met you in a dark alley dressed like that, we'd probably run away," Mira added through her giggles.

"I know you're going to love it here, Shirou-nii!" Lisanna cheered, squeezing his hand tighter, "Everyone here is really nice and welcoming! I can't wait to introduce you to everyone!"

"I am a bit concerned about one thing though," the eldest brother admitted, "During the welcoming party the other day, there was a massive fight that broke out and involved the entire guildhall. Is that a normal thing?"

"Unfortunately, yes," the guild master grimaced, but quickly put on a smile, "That's just how Fairy Tail is. The fights are just how everyone shows that they care. The guild is one massive family, as I'm sure you will come to realize for yourself."

"I'm still a bit skeptical," Shirou admitted, "But I'll give it a chance."

Accepting Shirou's response, Makarov opened the guildhall doors for the Strauss family to come in. Stepping inside, Shirou could see that the guildhall was relatively peaceful, a stark contrast from the guild wide brawl that transpired the other day. Everyone in the guild was either calmly chatting, drowning themselves in booze and food, or looking for work at the request board. Throughout the building he could see various children running around, either playing, practicing their own magic, or watching senior members demonstrate their craft. Among those kids he could see the children he rescued from the Tower of Heaven. The whole thing as actually a rather pleasant sight.

"Hey, you're Lisanna's older brother from before, right?" a familiar voice said from below Shirou's line of sight.

Looking down, Shirou instantly recognized the owner of the voice. Of course, it wasn't very hard to forget pink hair and a scarf that looked to be made from scales. Not to mention the boy's dragon scent and fiery temper.

"Oh, perfect timing," Lisanna beamed as she stepped between her brother and the scarfed boy, "Shirou-nii, I'd like to introduce you to Natsu. He's a very good friend of mine and was raised by a dragon. Natsu, this is my oldest brother, Shirou-nii."

'Guess that explains the dragon scent,' Shirou thought to himself.

"Yeah, I remember you," Shirou smirked, "You're the little brat that decided to challenge me to a fight the moment you heard that I was strong."

"I'm not a brat, and I'm about to challenge you again!" Natsu cried, igniting his right fist in flames, "Now fight me!"

"I've told you this twice already, I don't fight kids," Shirou sighed in exasperation.

"Then let's see you take on a dragon!" the pink-haired boy yelled as he threw a punch at Shirou's face.

Much like the last attempt, Shirou easily managed to catch Natsu, only this time he grabbed the young boy by his fist. Thanks to the difference in the size of their hands, Shirou was easily able to completely encase Natsu's fist in his own, snuffing out all the flame the little fire mage had conjured. Natsu was left to dangle helplessly from Shirou's grip, desperately trying to escape.

"Man, you have strong hands!" Natsu commented as he continued to struggle.

"I get that a lot," Shirou shrugged.

Keeping the boy at arm's length, Shirou couldn't help but smirk as Natsu flailed pointlessly in a vain attempt to attack. Since Shirou had the superior reach, Natsu couldn't even touch him while being held up by Shirou. When Natsu tried breathing fire, something Shirou honestly didn't expect form the young mage, Shirou simple twisted Natsu around so that his fire breath couldn't possibly reach his target.

As Natsu continued to struggle, Shirou noticed Lisanna giggling at the boy with an ever so slight hint of pink on her cheeks. Remembering the boy's reaction to Lisanna's girlfriend comments the other day, Shirou decided he was long overdue for some payback.

"I must say Lisanna, you have strange taste in boys," Shirou mused.

With a single comment, all the excitement in the immediate area disappeared. Natsu had stopped flailing around, a look of confusion plastered on his face. Lisanna was blushing profusely, desperately trying to hide her face in her hands. Mirajane and Elfman were wide-eyed and slake-jawed at Shirou's comment, even looking a few shades paler. Overall, there was just an air of awkwardness around the group.

'Maybe I took that too far,' Shirou thought to himself.

"Man, the new guy beat Lizard Breath emotionally and physically," the boy with the stripping problem laughed from across the guildhall, "Talk about an all-time low!"

"Gray, your clothes!" a young girl in an orange dress and ponytail yelled at the boy.

"Huh?! When did that happen?!" the boy identified as Gray cried, noticing he was in his boxers.

The sound of the naked boy's voice managed to rouse Natsu from his stumper, once again bringing him among the living. The fire mage directed a steely glare at Gray, as if trying to burn the fellow mage with his gaze.

"Like you could do better, Ice Queen!" Natsu screamed.

"What'd you call me, Flames for Brains!"

"You wanna go, Captain Underpants!"

"Come at me, Pyro!"

"Both of you, knock it off!" Makarov yelled, stretching both of his arms to chop the two boys on the head, "We just got the guildhall cleaned up after the brawl you two started during Shirou's welcome party! It's too early for you to go wrecking it again!"

"Sorry about that little comment," Shirou apologized, setting Natsu down on the floor, "I didn't mean to embarrass you too. I was just trying to get back at Lisanna for all the teasing she puts me through. You know how little sisters can be, right?"

"Yeah, I guess," Natsu pouted, not looking the newest guildmember in the eye.

"That still wasn't very nice, Shirou-nii!" Lisanna cried, repeatedly lightly punching her brother's leg.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Shirou apologized again, tousling Lisanna's hair, before returning his attention to Natsu, "If it's any consolation, that magic of yours is really something else. I've seen a lot of fire magic as a mercenary, but I've never seen anything like your magic before. It has a lot of potential to it."

"Really?" Natsu asked, brightening up instantly, "Thanks! It's called Fire Dragon Slayer Magic! My dad, Igneel, taught me everything I know!"

"I take it Igneel is this dragon Lisanna mentioned," Shirou deduced.

"That's right!" Natus confirmed with a firm nod and a wide grin.

"Well, nice to see that you're warming up to Natsu so quickly," Makarov observed with a smile.

"I had to raise these guys by myself after our parents died," Shirou explained, patting Lisanna's head as the rest of his siblings stepped forward, "I've had plenty of practice watching over brats their age."

"What'd you say?!" Natsu barked before suddenly slipping on the now frozen floor.

Looking at where Natsu had slipped, Shirou noticed a trail of ice leading away and to another part of the guildhall. Following the trail, Shirou found the source of the ice to be the still naked Gray, who had his knuckles pressed against the floor.

"Also can't believe he fell for that twice," the naked boy smirked.

"Gray, your clothes! Again!" the ponytailed girl from earlier called again.

"Ah! Right, still didn't fix that!" the boy screamed, desperately looking for his discarded clothes.

"Ice Magic, huh?" Shirou mused, "No wonder he and Natsu are always at each other's necks, and I put that together after only meeting them two days ago."

"Ice-Make Magic, actually," Elfman clarified, "That's Gray. From what we've heard, his stripping problem is the result of his teacher's teaching methods, but he's never gone too in-depth about it."

"The girl telling him off is Cana," Mira added, "Out of all the kids in the guild, she's been a member the longest. She practices Card Magic, and her deck is pretty diverse."

"Well, the kids in this guild sure are unique," Shirou mused, looking on as Natsu and Gray disappeared in a dust cloud, "Then again, you don't often see many Mage Guilds taking in children like this."

"Master!" two random voices cried out in distress.

Looking in the direction of the voices, Shirou saw two men running towards Master Makarov. The first man had short, spikey, dark blue hair and had a bit of stubble on his chin. The other man had light brown hair that was slicked back, wore sunglasses, and had a cigarette in his mouth. Both men looked to be about 30 years old, most likely veteran members of the guild.

"We've got a serious situation, Master!" the blue haired man said in a panic.

"What seems to be the problem, Macao?" the Guild Master asked.

"Well, Wakaba here tried to order something from the bar, but the bartender wasn't answering," the man identified as Macao explained, pointing towards his compatriot.

"So, I went to the back to see what was wrong, and I found this!" Wakaba exclaimed, handing Master Makarov a note on a sheet of paper, "The bar staff all quit this morning! Apparently, they couldn't take any more of the fights in the guildhall!"

"Well, this is certainly a problem," the elderly man grimaced, "The record in staying time is at a new low."

"What do we do now, Master?" Wakaba asked, completely lost.

"I suppose we'll have to hire some new bar staff," Makarov lamented, crumpling up the note, "though there's no telling how long it will be before anybody takes the job."

"I can take the job if you want," Shirou cut in, making himself known to the adults in the room.

"Huh?" the two young men asked in confusion.

"Hey, that's a great idea!" Lisanna cheered, "Shirou-nii is an amazing cook! I know he'll be perfect for the job!"

"That's for sure," Mirajane agreed with a nod.

"He's a real man, especially in the kitchen," Elfman added.

"Are you sure, Shirou?" the Master asked in concern, "You just joined the guild the other day. I would hate to impose."

"Not a problem at all! Cooking is actually one of my favorite hobbies," Shirou replied, flexing a bicep for emphasize, "So, Wakaba, was it? What exactly where you trying to order?"

"Huh? Who, me?" Wakaba asked, caught off guard by the sudden question, "Um, I haven't had breakfast yet. So, omurice, I guess."

"Coming right up!" Shirou cheered, rolling up his sleeves past higher up his arms.

"The kitchen is this way, Shirou-nii!" Lisanna cheered, dragged her brother by the hand behind the bar.

When he saw the bar, Shirou couldn't help but be a bit impressed. For a guild that catered to mages, the Fairy Tail Guildhall had a rather impressive kitchen behind their bar. The walls were lined with the latest cooking wear, and the appliances were all topnotch equipment running on Fire Lacrima. Looking through the storage room, Fairy Tail's newest edition found a wide variety of fresh produces and meats. He would certainly have an enjoyable time in this kitchen.

Collecting everything he needed from the storage room, including a pink apron, Shirou immediately started on Wakaba's omurice. He starting by setting some white rice to cook before preparing the sauce. The first thing he did was chop up some garlic and sauté it with olive oil in a frying pan. Once the garlic was thoroughly cooked, he mixed in some diced tomato and crushed consommé. Immediately after that, he added some salt, pepper, and sugar. To finish off the sauce, he melted in some butter before putting the sauce on the side.

From the main guildhall, the rest of the Strauss family watched from the kitchen's order window as their brother cooked. Along with them were Makarov, Macao, and Wakaba, who were all curious as to how good of a cook Shirou was. So far, they had a pretty good impression of their newest member, as the sauce alone looked good enough to eat.

For the fried rice, Shirou started by prepping his ingredients, first by coarsely chopping an onion, thinly slicing some mushrooms, and dicing some raw chicken thighs. With everything cut up, Shirou returned to the stove and sautéed the diced chicken in some more olive oil before adding the onions and mushrooms. Once everything was cooked, he threw in some salt, pepper, crushed consommé, and ketchup, mixing thoroughly to temper the sour flavor. Finally, he added the white rice he had set to cook earlier and mixed in the sauce he made, completing the fried rice.

In the main guildhall, Natsu had caught a whiff of the fried rice thanks to his super sensitive dragon nose. The smell of the delicious food cooking was so good that he immediately abandoned his fight with Gray to see who exactly was making it. Not one to leave a fight unsettled, Gray followed after the fire mage to finish what they started, only to find himself looking through the kitchen order window along side Natsu and the Strausses. Pulled in by the crowd, Cana herself ended up also watching with the rest of the kids, her interest peaked by the food Shirou was making.

The final part of any omurice was the omelet itself. Moving the fried rice off the pan and onto a plate, Shirou began to prepare the omelet by heating some olive oil and butter in the now empty pan. While that was heating up over the low flame, Shirou cracked an egg and beat it in a bowl, adding a generous dash of salt to the mixture. Once the egg was smooth and the butter completely melted, he poured the beaten egg into the frying pan. Stirring the surface with a spatula, Shirou shook the frying pan until the omelet was at a half-cooked state. Once it was half-cooked, the omelet was folded over itself so it was a semicircle before getting tossed into the air. Shirou continued to flip the omelet until the edge of the fold was on top. With the omelet completely cooked, he slid the finished product on top of the plate of fried rice, topping it off with a little ketchup.

By the time that Shirou had completely finished cooking the dish, most of the guild had gathered around the order window, including the Tower of Heaven kids and the normally aloof Laxus. When they saw Shriou exiting the kitchen with the omurice in hand, the quickly vacated the area and gathered on the other side of the bar, with Wakaba sitting at one of the bar stools. Stepping out of the kitchen, Shirou placed the plate of food in front of the mage who ordered it, along with a set of utensils.

"All done," Shirou said cheerfully, patiently waiting for his first customer to take the first bite.

"T-thank you for the food," Wakaba stuttered, mesmerized by the exceptionally prepared meal in front of him.

Taking his knife, he cut along the top of the omelet, letting it unfold and fall flat over the entire pile of race. He then took his spoon and dug into the dish, pulling off a piece of the fluffy omelet and a bit of fired chicken rice. The entire guild watch expectantly as the veteran mage put the spoonful of omurice in his mouth.

"So buddy, how is it?" Macao asked his good friend.

"T-this… this is amazing!" the smoking mage cried, tears of joy leaking out from behind his sunglasses, "There's no other way to describe it! It's the perfect combination of sweet, savory, and sour! The crunch of the fried rice is perfectly complemented by the fluffy omelet! This has to be the best omurice I've ever tasted!"

"We told you Shirou-nii was an amazing cook!" Mira boasted.

"He makes cooking in a pink apron manly!" Elfman added.

"Shirou-nii is the best cook there is!" Lisanna cheered.

After hearing such bold claims about the eldest Strauss's cooking abilities, the rest of the guild immediately started placing their own orders for breakfast. The orders started pilling up so high that the rest of the Strausses jumped in to help in the kitchen. Even with how much work was being given to him and his family, Shirou didn't mind at all. In fact, he reveled in the amount of work being assigned to him. Cooking was always his escape from stress, and seeing other people enjoy his food was always a joy.

Despite the massive number of orders, Shirou and his family managed to fulfill all of them, the quality of each dish never suffering for it. His success in the kitchen did not go unnoticed, as Makarov made him the official Fairy Tail Head Cook and Bartender, promising him a generous pay for every hour he worked at the bar. Doing the math, he would make a bit more than enough money to pay for rent by the end of each month, leaving whatever he made on other jobs from the guild to the family's house fund.

Looking around at all the happy faces in the guildhall, Shirou couldn't help but feel all warm and fuzzy. For over a year, his heart had been lost, leaving him a shadow of a man. Thanks to the Fairy Tail Guild, he was filled with even more life than he was when it was just him and his siblings. He just knew he was going to like the guild.

* * *

 **Special End Card Segment: Animan Temple**

 **At the top of a mountain in some indistinguishable mountain range stood a single, Shinto Temple. In front of the temple stood two figures. The first was a rather slender man with black hair, dressed in a black and green t-shirt, blue jeans, a red overcoat, and black combat boots. Planted in the ground in front of him was a white, mechanical sword with blue circuits and a glass disk at the hilt, named Mugen. The sword itself was shaped like a double-edged sword but lacked any cutting edge. The second figure was a tall, buff man in a black cloak and a skull mask, making it impossible to see his face. The only thing visible through the mask was his ghostly blue eyes.**

 **"Hello, everyone! My name is Animan von Elysium X, and welcome to the Animan Temple!" the man with the sword greeted enthusiastically, "I'm your host and the proud owner of this temple! With me today is our co-host and a very good friend of mine, Ray O'Neill!"**

 **"Pleasure to meet all of you," the skull masked figure greeted calmly and politely, contrasting greatly with his appearance, "Animan here was kind enough to help me with this timeline I have created, so I'm here to help him with the world building and with hosting his end card segments."**

 **"So friend, what did you think of this first chapter?" Animan asked, pulling his sword out of the ground and leaning it on his shoulder."**

 **"I think it was a pretty good start," the gentle giant nodded, "Though, that last part felt like something from 'Today's Menu with the Emiya Family'. Even the recipe was pulled straight out if it."**

 **"I may or may not still be upset over that show ending," the master of the temple admitted sheepishly, scratching his cheek.**

 **"I too am a bit salty over that show ending," the masked man nodded, "They never got a chance to adapt the Ayako-centric chapter."**

 **"I forgot how much of an Ayako fanboy you were," Animan mused, holding his chin.**

 **"Well, you know…" Ray trailed, avoiding his partner's gaze bashfully.**

 **"… You know, your behavior really conflicts with your appearance," the master of the temple deadpanned, "It's actually kind of creepy, more so than your appearance alone."**

 **"Master," a third voice called out from the temple doors, "May I have a word with you?"**

 **Standing in front of the now open front door of the Animan Temple stood a young girl with black hair in a hime cut and dressed in a Shinto Priestess outfit.**

 **"Why, if it isn't my loyal assistant and Priestess Number 1, Aisa Himegami," Animan greeted, "What do you need to talk about?"**

 **"There seems to be an anomaly in the temple interior," Himegami explained, "I fear we may have been invaded."**

 **The two hosts of the end segment exchanged a worried look before rushing inside the temple. Once inside, they were greeted by the sight of a kendo dojo sitting in the middle of the larger main room. At the back of the dojo was a sign that read "Third Magic", and the dojo was inhabited by a young woman in a kendo uniform and a young, albino girl in bloomers. When the two women took notice of the men in the room, the younger looking of the two started cowering behind the older one.**

 **"Ah! There are two strange men in the dojo!" the albino girl cried.**

 **"Now, now, there's no need to be afraid," Ray said in a calming tone.**

 **Unfortunately, Animan had a much more… extreme reaction.**

 **"Who are you and why did you put a dojo in my temple!" Animan screamed, raising his sword towards the two intruders.**

 **Once the weapon was raised, the edgeless blade parted and moved to either side of the hilt, revealing two brilliant blue energy blades inside. The sword's circuits hummed with power as the kanji for "Power" appeared on the glass disk in the hilt.**

 **"Start explaining, or I start swinging!" the sword wielding master of the temple threatened.**

 **"You can do whatever you want to me, but if you lay even a finger on my precious student, I'll make you pay!" the older woman yelled defiantly, raising a shinai with a tiger strap attached to the guard.**

 **"Animan, calm down," the cloaked man insisted, "There's no need for violence. We can talk this out."**

 **"You wanna fight?!" Animan cried, ignoring his partner's pleas.**

 **"Let's go!" the shinai wielding woman roared, not unlike a tiger.**

 **Despite his best intentions, the masked figure could only watch with dead eyes along with Priestess Number 1 as his friend and partner got into a pointless fight with the kendo practitioner.**

 **"I knew this would happen," Himegami deadpanned, watching the fight play out.**

 **"Well, that's it for this Animan Temple," Ray sighed in exasperation, "See you all next time."**


	2. Take Up a Sword

**Welcome back everyone to another chapter. Sorry for the slow progress, but I do have a life outside of this site, and this is a collaboration project.**

 **As I do with my own stories, I will be including so responses to reviews left behind on the previous chapter prior to the next chapter being posted. If you have any questions that are not spoiler heavy, I suggest you read to the latest chapter and then leave a review then. If you have a spoiler heavy question, send me a PM and I will do what I can to answer. Just to warn you, I will only be answering on behalf of myself. Ray doesn't play much in terms of writing aside from planning, editing, and revising. We do not get together and read all the reviews to write individual reponses for everyone, only I do. That being said, I like to get to know my readers, so please ask whenever you have questions.**

 **Now, with that out of the way, let's see what I have to say to all of you who stuck around.**

 _ENDDRAGON369: Yes, I know. I do my research._

 _DALucifer13: Oh, I'm sure I can come up with a few guess of how glad you are._

 _Takei Daloui: Thank you for the support. I had a renewed interest in Fairy Tail recently and seeing Ray's story just sitting there with so much untapped potential just seemed like the perfect opportunity to get back into it. Honestly, I never realized he was an Ayako fanboy either, and I've been reading his work for a while._

 _ivan0061509: Thank you for the support._

 _Axel Uzumaki: Sorry to keep you waiting. I like to think I excel at emotional driven narratives, at least that's the impression I get from my other works. Hopefully I'm right about that._

 _alexkellar: Glad you liked it. Don't worry, the rescued children from the R-System will all get some focus at some point. We've already got plans for subplots involving Erik and Kinana, because you have to have a subplot involving them in a scenario like this._

 _WARR10R360: Glad I was able to give new life to a story you loved so much. Hopefully, I live up to expectations._

 _DarkManta: Thank you._

 _doraemax: This was a story I wanted to see continued for a long time, so I eventually decided to do it myself. Why would Shirou need to use Structural Analysis and Reinforcement to improve his cooking? He's already a natural at it. I didn't go full "Today's Menu for the Emiya Family" just so Shirou could use magic on it to make it taste good. Oh, there will surely be praise, and then several years later Shirou will be aiming for their heads._

 _GaeAssail: It was my pleasure._

 _98kazer: Someone seems happy about all this. That is very kind of you to say. You are the second person to say that, the first being Ray himself. No lie, he said I pulled off the first chapter better than he thought he could have. Original Flavor is my go-to whenever I'm writing. Capturing the essence of the characters and settings is always a top priority._

 _HalfAScribe: At this point, it's pretty much a meme. I may or may not be mentioning it again in later chapters._

 _superpierce: Thank you._

 _Guest (1): Fair criticism. Start ups are usually my downfall._

 _PrototypeSaber15: Happy you liked it so much._

 _mx2432: I'm glad you liked the first chapter. Due note that this is still early on, so interactions will be slow. Thankfully, Shirou being the bartender/cook/waiter of the entire guildhall means he has to interact with everyone eventually._

 _Primordial Inscriptor Z-09: I like to think I made it abundantly clear that this was a continuation. I mean, the title is literally the original title plus one word. Still, glad to hung around to the end._

 _JHShadow: You're kidding, right? The original oneshot was essentially three chapters stuffed into a single chapter slot. Plus, the original story still exists, so posting that here would be redundant. Besides references to the original story are laid out everywhere and you're encouraged to read the original story first before reading this on. This isn't a story made for new readers. It's a story made for old readers wanted a continuation that had not existed until now._

 _tl34lt12: Yup, just as the world should be. No plans for other characters getting revived are in place as of right now. Besides, so much has already changed because of a single character being reincarnated. I doubt any other variables are needed._

 _zubhanwc3: That was what I was going for. A real homey feeling chapter to get Shirou settled into Fairy Tail. Don't worry, I won't be getting that far in depth with the cooking in the future. Just thought I'd throw in a little bit of that Nasu flare into it._

 _The Apex Predator 01: Glad you liked it so much._

 _KhanhM: You're either a massive troll or a bit short in wit. Ray was clearly going for a Emiya Assassin look for Wandering Shirou, which does include battle armor. And battle armor is clearly armor worn into battle. Like, that can't be any more transparent._

 _Ill (Guest): Thank you for all the suggestions. All of that stuff is planned out ahead of time, so don't you worry about that._

 _Guest (2): I do love my references._

 _tuntuntunaa: Did you expect anything else? He's pro cooking mage Shirou Strauss! Of course he was going to be in such a position._

 _ZooFan: Glad to see you liked the revival of Ray's story. That's a bit of a spoilery topic. If you really want to know that badly, you can send me a PM to ask. Last chance to decide if you really want to know._

 _vinayakdj1: Well, what did you expect? It's Shirou! To ask him to not cook is to ask EMIYA to not act like a mom in Chaldea._

 _MaskedRiderEnzo: Stick around. It gets even more interesting later on._

 _Mercenary9814: I think the term your looking for is "concept". This concept can be done by anyone, but if the plot based on that concept is bad, then the whole fanfic suffers._

 _SolanaLeonhart: Glad you liked it. Animan Temple is becoming a staple for stories I work on. You can expect it to show up in every story I post from now on. I recommend you read the original oneshot as soon as possible._

 _DracoArtemisLeopin: Family based chapters will be sweet, and I hope to make action based chapter blood pumping. Here's to a hopefully successful continuation._

 **Now that all of those are out of the way, let's get a disclaimer posted so I don't get sued by anyone.**

 **Disclaimer: Neither I nor Ray O'Neill own Fate/Stay Night or Fairy Tail, or any of the series' respective characters, and we make no money from this.**

* * *

Chapter 2: Take Up a Sword

After a long day of cooking for the entire guild, the Strauss family returned to their humble abode for some much-deserved rest. After that first day as an active member of Fairy Tail, Shirou could confidently say that he was going to enjoy his time at the guild. After all, he spent the entire time there doing two of his favorite things: spending time with his family and cooking. It had been especially refreshing to do those things together considering his previous situation regarding his family and lifestyle.

"Home at last," Shirou sighed as he opened the door for his family.

"I still can't believe we were able to get such a nice apartment for such a low rate," Elfman admitted as he and his sisters walked in.

"I'm just glad we can all finally be together after so long," Lisanna beamed.

"Only downside is that now we have to listen to Shirou-nii's motherly nagging," Mira joked.

"I'm right here, you know," Shirou said with a sigh, "All right you three. We all had a long day and you need to clean up. All of you, take a bath while I get dinner ready."

"See? Motherly nagging," Mira pointed out.

"Come on, Shirou-nii, that's not fair to you!" Lisanna complained, "You've been cooking all day. You should let us handle dinner tonight."

"It's fine, really," Shirou insisted, "You know I don't mind cooking for all of you. I enjoy it."

"Shirou-nii, you always said that a real man knows when it's time to pull back and rest," Elfman argued, "You of all people should know that you need that rest now."

"Plus, you stink of kitchen grease," Mira added, holding her nose for emphasis, "If anyone needs a bath, it's you!"

'Well, she's got me there,' Shirou thought to himself.

"Alright, you win, I'll leave dinner to you three," Shirou conceded.

"You can count on us!" Lisanna cheered with determination.

With their roles for the night decided, Shirou headed into the bathroom to clean up while his siblings prepared dinner. Taking off all of his clothes and setting them to the side, he stepped into the shower and let the water pour over him, washing away the filth and aches of the day. Shirou had to admit it felt nice.

After spending a year wandering by himself, being able to enjoy a shower was refreshing. When working as a mercenary, he never stayed in one place for too long. He never owned a place to call his own at the time, and hotels and inns weren't always very welcoming towards him. He was always moving around, only going into towns to collect his rewards and pick up supplies. If he wanted to bathe, he had to find a freshwater lake to help him wash up. Even then, it was never enough to wash away the scent of blood, both those of his targets and his own.

Stepping out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist, Shirou was greeted by the smell of some amazingly prepared food. Making his way into the kitchen to investigate, he found the source of the smell to be a delicious, piping hot, hotpot sitting in the middle of the table. It was made with a miso broth and filled with things like beef, fresh vegetables, seafood balls, and noodles. His siblings were putting the finishing touches on the meal, setting out dishes and utensils.

"Looks delicious," Shirou complimented, making his presence known.

"Shirou-nii!" the three children cheered with smiles on their faces.

However, those smiles quickly disappeared upon seeing their older brother's body. For the first time since they reunited, the younger Strausses were able to get a good look and their older brother's condition, and to call it ugly would be an understatement. Shirou's chest was completely covered in scars and wounds, some of which had not been completely healed. There were slashes across his chest and deep gashes in his abdomen. However, the most concerning was the stab wound on Shirou's left pectoral, right where his heart would be.

"Shirou-nii, what happened to you?" Lisanna asked in horror.

"Huh? Oh, these?" Shirou replied, gesturing to his many scars, "Yeah, mercenary work can be dangerous. Had a few close calls. For the last year, I've been developing my own brand of magic, and there were times that I needed it in mid-combat that it failed me. Left me with these little marks."

"How can you be so calm about this?" Elfman asked, completely shocked, "Some of those wounds look really bad. One of them looks like it struck you in the heart!"

"… I guess I just never noticed them," Shirou admitted with a heavy sigh, "The wounds physical hurt, but they don't compare to the pain I felt everyday after losing you three. Plus, my magic gave me access to methods to help heal those wounds, but nothing could ease the pain I felt from not have you three around."

The three siblings could hardly believe what they where hearing. The entire year they had been separated from their older brother, they had believed life had been hard. They were constantly turned away by people because of Mira's demonic arm until they found Fairy Tail. Even then, they still had each other. But Shirou, he spent that year with no one. The pain of loneliness he experienced was so great that none of the pain from his numerous wounds compared to it. When it all came down to it, Mirajane, Elfman, and Lisanna had it easy.

On the other hand, Shirou was starting to deeply regret being so careless with letting his scars be seen. While it was true that they didn't bother him very much, the look of horror and sadness on his family's faces upon seeing them did. He never could stand the sight of unjust suffering. That was true for both his past and current lives. Seeing those looks of suffering on his family's faces made the feeling so much worse.

On the verge of tears, Lisanna ran up to her oldest brother and hugged his leg tightly, quickly followed by Elfman and Mirajane. All three held on to their long-lost brother for dear life, afraid that if they let go, they'd lose them again.

"We're so sorry, Shirou-nii," Lisanna sobbed, "We left you all alone for all that time. It's our fault you suffered so much."

"If I had never gone to fight that demon in the church, we wouldn't have been driven out of the village," Mirajane cried, "If I had done that, we would have been there when you came back from that hunting trip."

"A real man owns up when he's responsible for someone's suffering," Elfman whined, "I can't call myself a real man if I don't take responsibility for letting all of this happen. I was the man of the house while you were gone. I should have tried harder to keep Mira-nee from going to that church."

"Hey now, stop blaming yourselves," Shirou insisted, "None of this is any of your fault. That's all in the past. All that matters now is that we're together. All that pain was worth it to find you all here, so stop crying."

"Still," Mira sniffled, "We need to make it up to you in some way. You suffered a whole year without anyone to call family. We need to make sure you never have to go through that again."

"And what do you propose we do?" Shirou inquired, thankful his siblings were starting to calm down.

"How about we form a Family Contract?" Lisanna suggested.

"A Family Contract?" Shirou asked.

"Yeah! We set up a set of rules for how we live our life together," Lisanna explained, "So long as we uphold the contract, we can make sure our bond as a family stays as strong as possible!"

"I like it," Shirou smiled, "So, where do we start."

"Article 1: Never ever forget that we are family," Lisanna listed.

"Article 2: Always say 'I'm back' when coming home," Elfman added.

"Article 3: Take turns preparing dinner," Mirajane insisted.

"Article 4: Practice personal hygiene," Shirou followed, jokingly holding his nose to avoid the small scent of food coming from his siblings.

"Article 5: Don't walk around naked," Lisanna added with a smirk.

"That needs to be an article in the Family Contract?" Shirou asked, confused as to why something so basic would need to be included.

"Well…," Lisanna trailed, pointing down at Shirou's lower half.

Looking down, Shirou realized he was still wearing nothing but a towel, essentially completely naked.

"Okay, point taken," Shirou chuckled, "I'll get dressed. We'll discuss the rest of the terms over dinner."

"We'll be waiting," Mira replied with a chuckle of her own.

A few minutes later, Shirou rejoined the rest of his family at the dinner table, now fully dressed. As they ate, the family continued to discuss their Family Contract and adding additional articles. By the time they finished their meal, they had a grand total of 113 different articles. With their terms agreed upon, their contract was sealed with a pinky swear. The four siblings hooked their pinkies together and shook before touching the tips of their thumbs, forming a house with their hands. So long as they were together, they would live by this Family Contract.

* * *

The next day, when the Strauss family entered the guildhall, they were greeted by the sight off all the kids of the guild gathered together in the middle of the building. As they approached, the children took notice of their presence and immediately turned their attention to them, specifically towards the eldest among them.

"Hey, Shirou's here," Sorano cheered with joy.

"Hi kids," Shirou greeted with a smile, "You all seem to be in good spirits. Did something happen?"

"Yeah, check it out," Wally replied, moving to the side to reveal the center of attention.

With a slight nudge from Jellal and Simon, the young Erza stepped forward to the front of the group. Much like the rest of the kids from the destroyed R-System, she was dressed in fresh clothes and tidied up. Her hair had fallen so that her bangs covered her right eye, the one that had been gorged out by the slaver at the tower. With a slight hesitation, the redhead brushed the bangs behind her ear, revealing a totally healthy eye.

"Incredible," Shirou said in awe, kneeling down to get a closer look, "It looks completely healthy. How did this happen?"

"Master Makarov has an old friend named Porlyusica who specializes in magical remedies," Cana explained, "He took Erza here to visit her the other day. She was able to make Erza an artificial eye to replace the lost one."

"Though, there were complications," Erza admitted, "For some reason, the new eye doesn't tear up. But I don't mind. I've shed so many tears already, I probably just ran out of tears to shed."

"Well, we can't have that now, can we? Tears of joy exist too," Shirou insisted.

"It doesn't matter. There's nothing I can do about it anyway," Erza said solemnly.

"Besides, Healing Magic is a form of Lost Magic," Cana explained, "At this point, the likelihood of finding someone with that kind of magic would be pretty bad."

"Come on, don't be like that," Shirou encouraged, "Who knows, maybe something will come along that can help."

"I guess."

"Hey, Shirou!" Natsu asked loudly, "What kind of magic can you do?"

"I'm curious too, Shirou-nii," Lisanna added, "We saw you use your magic to fix Mira-nee's arm, but you never told us what exactly you did."

"You're all that curious, huh?" Shirou chuckled.

Deciding to humor the children, Shirou stood up and gave them all a quick demonstration. Diving into his inner world, Shirou Traced his two signature and most trusted weapons, Kanshou and Bakuya, the Married Swords.

"It's a special brand of magic I developed myself and unique to me. I call it Tracing," Shirou explained, presenting the swords, "It allows me to recreate objects I have seen before. I'm particularly good at making swords and sword-like objects, but other objects not related to swords are possible.

"So, it's like Maker Magic?" Gray asked in curiosity.

"Gray, your clothes!" Cana reprimanded, causing the naked boy to flinch.

"Not exactly," Shirou chuckled, "Maker Magic transforms magic energy into matter and shapes it into whatever the caster desires. My Tracing only allows me to recreate something I've seen before. And even then, the copies are only Projections and made of magic energy on a fundamental level. On the bright side, I also copy the weapon's history, allowing me to use the weapon with the same efficacy as the original wielder."

"That's pretty dandy," Wally noted, "You must be a master swordsman if that's the case."

"Nah," the former mercenary replied, "I'm just a Faker."

"So, you just fight using other people's fighting styles?" Erik asked.

"Well, I do have my own style of swordsmanship, but its very unconventional and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else," Shirou clarified, "Just like my magic, it's unique to me."

'Not to mention suicidal,' the oldest among the group added in his head, now wanting to share his methods with his siblings present.

"Enough about me," Shirou insisted, "What about the rest of you? I've been a member for three days now, and I barely even know what kind of magic you kids use. The only people whose magic I know of are Natsu and Gray's, and even then, I only have a rudimentary understanding of Natsu's Fire Dragon Slayer Magic."

"Come on Natsu, show Shirou-nii the special ability that your magic gives you," Lisanna encouraged.

"Well, if you insist," Natsu complied with a hint of pride, "Hey Cana, mind lending me a hand.

"Sure. Just give me a second," the ponytailed brunette replied as she dug through her bag.

After a minute, the young mage pulled out a deck of cards, and a rather sizable one at that. If Shirou had to guess, it was at least 78 cards thick. Cana then shuffled through the cards, pulling out three and fanning them out for everyone could see. They were tarot cards, specifically The Sun, The Strength, and The Reversed Devil. Calling out the three cards by name, the three cards ignited into flames as Cana threw them at Natsu. In response. The young Dragon Slayer started to inhale, and to Shirou's surprise, the flames conjured up by Cana's cards flowed straight into Natsu's mouth without any harm to him. Soon enough, all the fire disappeared into Natsu's mouth and down his throat, leaving the young boy to burp in satisfaction.

"Thanks for the meal, Cana," Natsu said with a grin.

"…Did you just seriously eat fire?" Shirou asked, having never seen anything like it before.

"Yup!" Natsu grinned, "That's the special technique of Dragon Slayer Magic! It lets me eat outside sources of my element and replenish my magic power! Pretty cool, huh?"

"I will admit, I've never seen that before," Shirou chuckled, "So, how does fire taste, anyway?"

"It depends on the fire, but Cana's fire is always pretty sweet, but a little spicy," Natsu replied.

"Is that so," Shirou mused, before turning his attention to the ponytailed brunette, "And what magic did you use just now?"

"I use Magic Card," Cana explained, fanning out the contents of her deck for everyone to see, "I use different card combinations to create different effects. Just now, I combined The Sun, The Strength, and The Reversed Devil to create fire, but there is a lot more that I can do with these."

"That's so cool!" Sho said in complete awe, "I wish I could do stuff like that."

"Well, once you unlock your magic power, I'd be happy to teach you," the resident Magic Card user offered.

"You'd do that?" Sho beamed.

"Of course! I'd be happy to help," Cana replied with a smile.

"What about you two?" Shirou asked, turning to the youngest among his family, "I still haven't learned what magic you've learned yet."

"We both learned Take Over Magic, just like Mira-nee!" Elfman exclaimed, transforming his right arm into that of a bear, "I learned Beast Soul Take Over Magic, but I've only managed my right arm for now."

"Well, that's certainly a start," Shirou nodded, "And you, Lisanna?"

"I learned Animal Soul Take Over Magic," Lisanna announced proudly, "Check it out!"

With a twirl similar to that of a ballerina, Lisanna was enveloped in a in a bright light, obscuring her from everyone else's view. When the light faded, she had transformed into something not entirely human. She now had cat ears, a cat noes, whiskers, a light blue with black striped tail, and cat paws at in place of her hands. The fur on the paws extended up her forearms and had the same pattern as the tail. The same held true for the halter top bikini she wore in this transformation.

"Ta-da! This is my Cat Soul Take Over," Lisanna cheered, letting everyone see her new form, "Pretty cute, huh?"

"Adorable!" Millianna squealed, being an avid cat-lover herself.

"I've also mastered the Full Body Take Over," Lisanna announced proudly, "It's that great, Shirou-nii?"

However, Shirou wasn't listening. He was paying too much attention to Lisanna's current state of dress to listen. Seeing how little his youngest sister was dressed, Shirou could feel his eye twitch in anxiety and frustration. For the first time in over a year, Shirou's protective older brother instinct went into maximum overdrive.

Without saying a word, Shirou instantly Projected a blanket in his arms. It wasn't just any blanket, though. It was the same blanket he Projected and used to wrap Illya with when he saved her from being transformed into the Lesser Grail in his previous life. It that blanket had been a Noble Phantasm, Shirou would have opted to call it Sister Veil: The Shield of a Girl's Dignity. Faster than anyone could blink, the overprotective older brother wrapped his youngest sister in the blanket, shielding her bikini clad form from all prying eyes.

"Lisanna, wasn't it you who included Article 5 of the Family Contract?" Shirou asked in a low voice, "'Don't walk around naked' I believe it was."

"Family Contract?" Natsu asked in confusion.

"Don't walk around naked?" Gray followed.

"Gray, your clothes," Cana called out, sending the underwear wearing boy into a panic to find his missing clothes.

"I see you kids are as full of energy as ever," Makarov noted as he approached the group.

"Oh, hi Gramps," Natsu greeted, "Did you need something?"

"Oh, nothing in particular," the old man waved off, "I just needed to speak to Jellal here real quick."

"What did you need?" the tattooed boy asked.

"I just need to know if anything odd, magically speaking, happened to you recently," Makarov inquired, "I've sensed an unusually large reservoir of magic power from you, my boy, much more than what would be expected of someone your age, much less of someone who has never performed magic in his life."

"…Well, there is one thing," Jellal admitted.

"Care to share, young man?" Makarov asked, pushing the topic.

For a moment, Jellal remained silent, unsure of what to say. After all, how are you supposed to tell someone that you've had a close encounter with the evilest mage to ever walk the face of Earthland, especially if that close encounter involved you considering to help in that evil mage's resurrection? The mages of Fairy Tail have been so welcoming towards him and his friends. The last thing Jellal wanted to do was scare they all away from him by sharing this questionable secret.

"Well, my boy?" Makarov asked again, pushing the subject.

"Tell him, Jellal," Shirou encouraged, "At the end of it all, you made the right choice that day. No one here will think any less of you for being tempted back then."

Looking his savior in the eyes, Jellal could help but stare in awe at them. He remembered the day he met the man in front of him vividly. He remembered how cold and detached Shirou's eyes could be, like when he first freed Jellal from Zeref's control. The eyes Jellal saw now radiated with warmth, the kind of warmth that guaranteed you that everything was going to be okay. It was amazing how a couple days of cooking and spending time with one's family can induce such a change.

Turning his attention back to Master Makarov, Jellal took a deep breath as he steeled his resolve. Shirou was right. His encounter with Zeref was behind him. Just as Grandpa Rob had always told them, Fairy Tail is a place where everyone was considered family. They would not turn on him just because he had one encounter with the evilest mage in history.

"The truth is, while we were slaves in the construction of an R-System, I had come in contact with the soul of Black Mage, Zeref," Jellal admitted, "He tried to take control of me and use me as a puppet to revive him. Thankfully, Shirou-san here was able to free me from his control before I was too far gone."

"I see," Makarov mused, "I would appear that this close encounter unlocked your latent magic potential. With how much magic power you possess, I wouldn't be surprised if you quickly rose to become a very powerful mage. Of course, you'll need to find a style of magic that best suits you first."

"You really think so?" Jellal asked somewhat hopefully.

"I know so," Makarov nodded, "I'm sure you'll become quite the respectable mage once you find an appropriate style of magic."

"Man, that's awesome, Jellal!" Wally congratulated, "You're going to become a super powerful mage."

"Well, I would go as far as to say that," Jellal said sheepishly, "I still have to learn to use magic first."

"Maybe so, but you're still leagues ahead of everyone else," Millianna pointed out.

"I wouldn't worry too much about that," the guild master cut in, "The Fairy Tail archives are filled with all the knowledge you could possibly need to learn all forms of common place magic."

"Do you have books on Celestial Spirit Magic?" Sorano asked.

"All that and more!" Makarov replied with a grin.

While everyone was absolutely jubilant at the prospect of learning magic, a single girl among them was less so. She by no means didn't find the ideal enticing, far from it. She was more than happy to have a chance to learn the mystical art that her surrogate grandfather had told her so much about. Rather, she was upset because she was getting this chance far too late.

While imprisoned in that accursed tower, the young Erza made a promise to the withering old man. She promised that once she learned how to fly on a broom with magic, she would give her dear grandpa a ride on it. But sadly, she would never get that chance to fulfill her promise. While Shirou was able to free them, Rob died only shortly after the incomplete tower was destroyed, leaving a hole in the hearts of everyone who knew him.

What good was learning magic if the one person she wanted to share it with was no longer around to see it?

"Are you okay, Erza?" Shirou asked in a concerned tone, "You've been quiet."

"I'm fine," Erza replied, walking past the kneeling mage, "I just need to be alone for a little bit."

Shirou, along with everyone else, watched silently as the redhead left the guildhall. Just from the way she walked, everyone could tell that something was bothering her, they just couldn't tell what. Those who didn't know Erza very well chose to leave her be on the grounds that they probably didn't have any stake in the issue. Shirou initially thought about going after her but calls from nearby tables requesting food convinced him respect her wishes for the time being. As Shirou got to work in the guildhall kitchen, he failed to notice the likes of Sho, Millianna, Wally, Simon, and Jellal take a different course of action, following their redhead friend.

Having left the guildhall to be by herself, Erza wandered the streets of Magnolia. She had no end goal, no destination she was aiming towards. She just wanted to be alone to muddle in her thoughts. Fairy Tail had been everything Grandpa Rob had has it would be. It was full of wonderful people, powerful magic, and was beyond welcoming. When she and everyone else first arrived at the guild, Master Makarov gave them a place to stay in Fairy Tail's orphan dormitory despite the fact than none of them were actually mages yet. How the Strauss siblings could have trust issues so bad they insisted on living alone before Shirou returned to them was beyond Erza after spending a few nights there.

As she wandered, Erza pondered if she was in any position to learn magic in the first place. With Rob long dead, she no longer had someone waiting for her to accomplish anything. She no longer had any drive to learn the mystic art. Even if she did, what magic would she learn? While she found all the different forms of magic she's seen so far interesting, none of them really appealed to her.

Fire Dragon Slayer Magic looked cool, but she doubted that Natsu would make a very good teacher. Ice Maker Magic had promise, but she rather not get too associated with a compulsive stripper like Gray. Take-Over Magic was also nice, but she didn't know if she could find a style that would suit her. Shirou's Tracing was the only form of magic that she really wanted to get a grasp of, but as the older boy said himself, it was a form a magic unique to him. There just didn't seem to be any sort of magic that seemed to suit her.

"Hey! Erza!" a familiar voice called out from behind her.

Turning around, the redhead saw her fellow former slaves and friends running towards her. Their faces all showed both concern and relief, with a slight in of exhaustion. Of course, that was to be expected with the fact that Erza had been wandering completely aimlessly for a while. They more than likely had at least a little difficulty finding her.

"There you are," Simon sighed in relief, "We were all worried about you."

"I'm sorry," Erza apologized, avoiding eye contact, "I didn't mean to make you all worry."

"Don't worry about it. We're just glad we found," Wally insisted, "Course, you didn't make it easy."

"Are you really okay?" Sho asked, worry ever present in his eyes.

"I'm fine," Erza replied weakly, "It's just that I'm worried if I'd even become mage, or at the very least be capable as one."

"You don't want to be a mage?" Millianna asked, confused.

"No, it's just…," Erza hesitated, "I just don't have the drive to. It just doesn't feel the same without Grandpa Rob here to see use grow into mages. Besides, I don't even have access to any magic power. For all we know, I'm not even capable of learning magic."

"Come on, Erza, I'm sure you'll unlock your magic power soon enough," Jellal encouraged.

"Easy for you to say. You've already had a massive pool of it unlocked by Zeref," Erza grumbled with a hit of jealousy.

"And I'm sure Grandpa would want you to at least try to learn magic," the tattooed boy continued, "He may not be with us now, but he's constantly watching over us wherever he is. He would want you to live your life to the fullest, especially now that we're at Fairy Tail. And what better way to live life to the fullest at a Magic Guild than being a mage?"

"How can you be so sure?" Erza asked, skeptically.

"I heard the voice of Zeref from beyond the grave, remember?" Jellal pointed out, "If the world's evilest mage can look over it from beyond the grave, then I'm sure someone like Grandpa Rob can do the same."

Erza looked down at the ground for a moment, lost in thought. In a lot of ways, what Jellal said was right. Rob really was a grandfather to all of them during their time in the tower. As is the norm with grandfathers, they don't usually outlive their grandchildren. Rob's job was to guide the children in place of their parents so they could go on and live happy and fulfilling lives. To reject an opportunity to live a happy life as a mage of Fairy Tail would be a dishonor to the old man.

"Yeah, your right," Erza agreed, looking her friends in the eye for the first time since they found her, "I'll find a style of magic that suits me and become a proper mage. It's what Grandpa Rob would have wanted."

"Glad to hear it," Jellal replied, flashing a bright smiling.

"Well, isn't that dandy," Wally smiled, putting his hands behind his head, "So, ya'll ready to head back to the guildhall?"

"Um, guys?" Simon interrupted, "Which was is the guildhall?"

Looking around, the group came to realize that they were completely lost. The Fairy Tail guildhall was for once not visible for their location, obscured from their view by the surrounding buildings. Having only been in Magnolia for a few days, the children had yet to learn the streets around the town. Couple with the fact that they had been looking for Erza who moments ago was wandering around aimlessly, and they had no idea how they were going to get back.

"Well, that's just dandy, we're completely lost!" Wally yelled sarcastically.

"Sorry about this," Erza apologized.

"Don't worry, it's not your fault," Simon said reassuringly.

"It actually kind of is," Wally deadpanned, earning him an elbow from Millianna.

"Everyone, calm down," Jellal ordered, "We just need to think this through."

"What do you mean?" Sho asked in both curiosity and fear.

"It's still early in the day, so the sun should still be in the east," Jellal explained, pointing towards the sun above the eastern horizon, "The guildhall is located in the northern most part of town, which means it must be this way."

Jellal then pointed to the left of the sun, straight into a nearby alley.

"Wow, you're so smart, Jellal!" Erza congratulated.

"It's nothing," Jellal insisted, a slight blush on his face.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Simon asked skeptically, "I don't like the idea of trying to get back to the guildhall by way of an alley like this. We should just ask for directions."

"It's fine. I know what I'm doing," Jellal insisted as he walked into the alley, "Come on, let's just go."

Following the tattooed boy's lead, the children walked into alley to get back to their guildhall. While the likes of Simon were a bit skeptical, everyone followed suit, having faith in Jellal's intelligence. Unfortunately, while Jellal was quite trustworthy, his hunches were less so. After a few minutes of walking northwards, the Fairy Tail guildhall was once again in view. Sadly, that view was quickly cut off by a group of very suspicious men dressed in black cloaks and hoods.

"Well, would look what we have here," one of the men said, "We have a couple of lost kids here."

"I think they're just what we're looking for," another man noted.

"What do you guys want?" Jellal demanded, taking a defensive stance.

"Oh, this kid's a feisty one," a third man pointed out, "I think we'd get a good price for him."

"I'm warning you, I'm a Fariy Tail Mage with lots of magic power," Jellal bluffed, purposefully omitting the fact he had yet to learn any magic.

"Go ahead and use your magic then," the first man dared, pulling out a sword from his cloak, "You being able to use magic will let us raise our rates. Of course, I doubt you'd dare do anything when we have hostages."

Alarmed by the man's words, Jellal quickly turned around to see three more identically dressed men holding swords to Sho, Wally, and Millianna's throats.

"I told you we should have just asked for directions," Simon whispered.

"Really? You want to play the blame game now?" Jellal asked, not appreciating his friend's sarcasm.

"What are we going to do," Erza asked, shaking with fear.

As the total of six hooded men closed in on the remaining children, it was clear that escape was not going to be an easy feat. Half of the group had been captured and taken hostage, and Erza was too shaken to defend herself. They had no chance of being able to overpower their attackers, leaving the children with only one option. They had to make an opportunity for one of them to escape and get help at the guild. This was the only way that all of them were going to get back to their new home.

Exchanging a look, it was clear to both Simon and Jellal that they had arrived at the same conclusion. Not only that, but it was abundantly apparent who had to be the one to get help.

With defiant screams, the two boys charged and tackled two of the men attempting to kidnap them. Caught off guard by the children's course of action, the two men the two boys attacked actually got knocked off their feet. However, the last man was not about to let the kids in front of him get away with what they had done and quickly grabbed Jellal by the throat. Once in his grip, the young boy was pinned to the wall and threatened at sword point.

"Jellal!" Erza cried.

"Oh no you don't, you bastard!" Simon yelled, attempting to attack the man choking his friend.

Unfortunately, all Simon got for his troubles was being kicked into a wall.

"No, Simon!" the redhead yelled.

"Don't worry about us," Simon moaned, clearly in pain.

"Just go, Erza! Get help!" Jellal ordered, struggling to breath, "You have to run!"

Face with the prospect of her friends being taken away, Erza was completely paralyzed. The thought of it terrified her. They had been trapped in that tower for so long and found freedom from Shirou's rescue. Now Erza was being told to run to get help, risking letting her friends get taken away once again. She couldn't bare it. It was just too much. With a defiant scream, Erza snapped.

Memories of her time building that tower as a slave rushed into the forefront of her mind. The long, grueling hours of manual labor. The constant abuse from the slave runners. The tasteless and lacking food that lead to malnutrition. The unbearable torture that cost Erza her right eye. These memories welled up insider her before bursting forth into a form of strength she had never experienced before.

Suddenly, the weapons of her and her friends' attackers few out of their hands and floated around Erza. The six swords were all coated in a scarlet aura that radiated with power. The swords each tilted towards one of the hooded men, selecting them as targets. With a powerful scream, Erza let the swords fly.

As Shirou set down a plate of Salmon and Mushroom Butter Foil Wrap at one of the Fairy Tail Guildhall's many tables, he felt a sharp tingle on the back of his neck. Somewhere in town, there was a massive spike of magic energy. What this meant, Shirou couldn't say for certain, but in warranted investigation.

"Mira, Elfman, Lisanna, take over for me for a bit," Shirou ordered as he threw off his pink apron and ran out of the guildhall.

As soon as he stepped out of the guildhall, he felt the massive pool of magic energy weaken, as if fading from existence. No one to leave suspicious activity overlooked, Shirou quickly rushed through the streets to where the spike had appeared. While the magic energy was much weaker now, it was still there, and was just enough to be tracked.

Eventually, Shirou found himself in front of an alleyway not too far away from the guildhall. In the alleyway were a total of twelve people. Huddled in the back were Jellal, Simon, Sho, Milliana, and Wally, all of whom looked to be a little ruffed up. Scattered around were six men in black hoods and cloaks, all of whom were collapsed on the ground or leaning on the walls. In the middle of it all stood Erza, wildly swinging a sword that was clearly too big for her, repeating the mantra, "I won't go back." She was about to take a stab at one of the collapsed men, but Shirou was thankfully able to stop her before she did something that she would regret.

"Whoa, easy there!" Shirou cried, catching Erza's arm before she could bring the blade down on the defenseless man.

"I won't go back! I won't! You can't make me!" Erza screamed, violently struggling against the grip of Shirou's strong hands.

"Erza, stop! It's me, Shirou!" the young man yelled, quickly disarming the girl and pulling her in a hug.

"S-shirou?" the redhead stuttered.

"Yes, it's me," the older mage replied, "You don't have to worry. No one is going to take you or anyone else away. Okay?"

Once he was sure that Erza had calmed down, Shirou let go of her and started to examine the rest of the scene. A quick glance over on the rest of the children told him that they were only mildly injured. Only Erza looked to be injured in some meaningful way, most likely because she was swinging around swords not fit for her size. With a quick Structural Analysis of the swords littered around the alley, Shirou got the full story of what happened, including the little tidbit about the six men being slave traders whose regular customer happened to include Zeref cultists building R-Systems. After tying the criminals up and contacting the proper authorities, Shirou took the children back to their home in Fairy Tail.

Once back at the guild, Shirou took Erza to the infirmary in the back of the guildhall to get her patched up. At the same time, he took the opportunity to question her about her recently released magic power.

"I see you've unlocked your magic power," Shirou noted offhandedly as he applied bandages to her various cuts.

"How did you know?" Erza asked, "Was it the damage done to the area."

"Nah, the swords told me," Shirou replied with a small grin, "Traumatic stress unlocked it for you?"

Erza gave a single nod in response.

"Yeah, that will do it," Shirou sighed, "Pretty much the same thing happened with me."

"Really?" Erza asked, tilting her head in curiosity, "What happened?"

"Pretty straight forward, really. I fell off a cliff during a hunting trip and was badly injured," Shirou recalled, "I was so desperate to get out of there alive and back to Mira, Elfman, and Lisanna that I mustered the strength the create my first Projection. That Projection saved my life. If not for it, I wouldn't be here today."

There were of course some discrepancies in his story. While Avalon was his first successful Noble Phantasm Projection, he had been capable of using his magic for a while. Still, the story had enough parallels to Erza's own experience to make a point.

"What, I thought you could only make sword and sword-like objects. How could anything like that save your life?" Erza inquired.

Smirking, Shirou held out his hand and gathered magic energy in his palm. In an instant, he Projected a near perfect replica of the greatest Noble Phantasm of the King of Knights, Avalon: The Everdistant Utopia.

"A long time ago, I stumbled upon this scabbard, which possesses an enchantment that gradually heals the holder. I lost the original long ago, but I came to learn to create an imperfect copy with my magic," Shirou explained, "This scabbard saved my life that day. Here, hold this for a minute."

Doing as she was told, Erza took the scabbard in hand. As soon as it was in hand, she felt a wave of magical energy pour over her. She felt a warmth that reached to her very core, like she was somewhere where she could never be hurt ever again. It felt like she was in paradise.

"This is amazing," Erza said in awe, "How can something like this even exist."

"No clue," Shirou lied, "I can only Trace the full history of things within human comprehension. Legends says that Avalon here was created by fairies, but I can't read its history well enough to say for certain."

"And you said you were able to Trace this as your first successful attempt at magic? That's amazing," Erza beamed, clutching the Noble Phantasm close to her chest.

"I could say the same for you," Shirou smiled, "You only just unlocked your magic power, but you already have a massive reservoir of energy to pull from and the first thing you do is take control of your enemies' swords. I'm sure Rob would be proud of what you've accomplished so far."

Thinking back to that day, Shirou couldn't help but feel a hint of sadness at the old man's death. If he could have done anything differently, he would have told the dying man his real name.

"Grandpa…," Erza sighed longingly, "Shirou, I want to be able to become a mage that Grandpa Rob can be proud of. Please, teach me how to use your magic."

"Sorry, but I can't. Even if we share an affinity for swords, there is more to it than that that makes this magic possible for me," Shirou explained.

'Particularly an inner world that has been a reflection of my soul since the day I was pulled out of that fire,' Shirou thought to himself.

Seeing Erza's crestfallen face at the knews, Shirou was quick to add an alternative option.

"However, there is a form of magic that I think will suit you," Shirou added, "During my travels, I learned of a type of magic that allows the caster to store objects in a pocket dimension from which they can call upon at any time. This form of magic is known as Requip."

"Requip?" Erza repeated in intrigue.

"That's right. If you learn this style of magic, you can emulate my magic by using actual weapons stored in a pocket dimension armory," Shirou explained, "Plus, I'd be more than happy to teach you how to handle these weapons. After all, a weapon is only as good as its wielder. No use in having an infinite armory if you don't know how to use anything in it."

In some other plain of existence, the soul of a certain golden king had the sudden urge to unleash his entire treasure trove on a single target.

"You'd really do that?" Erza asked, her eyes beaming.

"Of course," Shirou smiled, patting Erza on the head, "Just so long as you keep Avalon our little secret. You promise?"

"Promise!"

Overcome with joy, the young redhead began to cry. Tears started falling off her face, escaping both her eyes. When she realized what was happening, Erza started to cry even more, overjoyed by the turn of events brought about by Shirou's kindness. Even as Avalon disappeared from her hands, the warmth she felt still ran deep. Today, Erza entered a new chapter in a new life. The first chapter of a free life as a mage of Fairy Tail.

 **Special End Card Segment: Animan Temple**

 **In the dojo lodged in the middle of a Shinto temple raged a terrifying battle of crossing blades. In one side of the battle was Taiga Fujimura, the Tiger of Fuyuki and the instructor of the Tiger Dojo. On the other side of the battle was Animan von Elysium X, wielder of the reality warping Mugen and Master of the Animan Temple. The purpose of the battle? To determine once and for all who was encroaching on whose territory.**

 **Meanwhile, in the same dojo lodged in the middle of a Shinto temple, sat two younger girls at a kotatsu drinking tea in a civilized manner. On one side was the albino loli, Student Number 1 of Taiga Fujimura, Illyasviel von Einsbern. On the other side was the hime cut wearing high school girl, Priestess Number 1 of Animan, Aisa Himegami. The two sat calmly in regular discussion as they watched their respective superiors continue to fight pointlessly over an accident none of them were responsible for.**

 **"Hard to believe they're still fighting over a month later," Illya sighed, exasperated by her instructor's antics.**

 **"Not really. Master has always been pretty excitable," Himegami remarked, taking a sip of her tea, "I'm honestly more surprised that Miss Fujimura has been able to keep up with him in battle, especially since Master had resorted to splitting Mugen into its duel swords form about a week in."**

 **"I'm more surprised that he was able to write the next chapter in Onii-chan's new reality while fighting the entire time," the albino loli mused.**

 **"Reality warping sword. What are you going to do?" the priestess said simply.**

 **"What's with that Family Contract thing anyway?" Illya asked curiously, "Onii-chan and I never had a Family Contract. Not that I would want one anyway. It seems pretty cheesy."**

 **"Master got the idea from a certain mech anime only available on Netflix," Himegami explained, "The anime had a have focus on the theme of family, so Master integrated it in since it seemed appropriate."**

 **"Speaking of Family Contracts, Elysium Family Contract Article 112," Ray O'Neill said as he walked into the room with a grill full of Korean Bar BQ, "After a hard day's work, we will all eat together."**

 **As soon as the grill entered the room, the dojo was filled with the scent of grilled meat. There was beef, pork, lamb, chicken, and many other types of meat up for grabs. When the scent of the meat reached the two dueling masters, they immediately stopped fighting and sat across from each other at the kotatsu, ready to eat.**

 **"It always did only take good food to get you to calm down, Animan," Ray chuckled as he sat down with everyone else.**

 **"What can I say? Fighting when you can be eating is a big no-no!" Animan yelled defensively as he grabbed his chopsticks.**

 **"Amen to that!" Taiga cheered as she reached for a piece of meat.**

 **Unfortunately, that piece of meat was the exact same piece of meat that Animan had been reaching for. This ultimately was taken by each master as a challenge over that piece of meat, leading to the two of them to reenact the food fight training montage from Kung Fu Panda.**

 **"Should have seen that coming," Illya sighed as the two masters were once again locked in combat.**

 **"Well, we'll see you all in like another month, I guess," Ray said with a wave, "Hopefully, those two don't waste all their time fighting and miss out on this meat."**

 **"Doubtful," Himegami remarked as she stuffed a piece of meat in her mouth.**


	3. Lightning Fast Friends

**What's this? A new chapter in only 10 days? Does this mean this story will be updating much more quickly?!**

 **...**

 **Not likely.**

 **Hello internet. Animan10 here with another chapter of Swords of a Brother Unlimited. I hope you're all enjoy the story so far. I think this next chapter is going to be a pretty fun one. For now, let's get some reviews out of the way so you can all get to the story you actual came here to read.**

 _ZooFan: Glad you liked that bit of fluff. While this story is all about how Fairy Tail changes with the addition of some new characters, there are some thing we just had to keep the same for the sake of maintaining that Fairy Tail feel. Of course, Erza's status as Titania is one of those things that needed to be maintained. I think your other questions will be answered soon enough in this chapter._

 _doraemax: I think you'll find some pretty interesting stuff in this chapter regarding Take-Over magic. I wouldn't say Tracing is inferior to Maker-Magic, more that they had different advantages. Tracing benefits from authenticity, recreating something to near perfection. Maker-Magic is all about creating something from scratch. Basically, Maker-Magic is sculpting while Tracing is counterfeiting. The thing to remember about accidents like kidnappings is that no one ever expects it to happen to them. A safe environment like Magnolia would actually have a bigger target since everyone has their guard dropped and is so complacent. You did read the original story, right? A lot of these timeline changes were explained there._

 _superpierce: Looks like you didn't have to wait long._

 _daizuke: Spoilers! ... Also still undecided._

 _Greyjedi449t: Here you go, the next chapter!_

 _abciluvpie: Thank you!_

 _Rodvek97: Glad you liked it!_

 _adislt: I already have to deal with her crashing in my temple (literally!). I don't think she'll be showing up in Earthland any time soon._

 _samer69899: We have some plans for other Nasuverse elements, but not too much in terms of characters crossing over in the same way Shirou did._

 _mdey-KK: I'm guessing that was supposed to be a cat smile. In that case. :3_

 _The Apex Predator 01: Glad you liked it!_

 _PasiveNox: Thank you!_

 _Determination4296: Sorry to keep you waiting._

 _d4nte: It just felt so wrong to leave so much potential untapped. I had to take the reins and get this story moving. With Ray's help, of course._

 _alexkellar: Not so much that Gray isn't allowed near the family, more like he's going to be reprimanded a whole lot more every time it happens. Fairy Tail is one massive family, after all. Family Contract Article 5 is mostly in there for a gag, especially considering how often characters lose clothes (and that's without counting the Ice-Make Mages). You can especially count on Shirou's overprotectiveness becoming a running gag. Ray and I have big plans in place for when we reach the year X784._

 **Huh. these were some pretty generic reviews. Come on people, you can do better than that! Give me some thought provoking discussion material relating to how the story has progressed! Constructive criticism! Suggestions! Anything more substantial than just a few words of praise!**

 **Or not, and I can just get through review responses quickly each chapter. For now, let's get the disclaimer taken care of so I don't get sued.**

 **Disclaimer: Neither I nor Ray O'Neill own Fate/Stay Night or Fairy Tail, or any of the series' respective characters, and we make no money from this.**

* * *

Chapter 3: Lightning Fast Friends

Having been a member of Fairy Tail for over a week now, Shirou felt that he had really gotten to know everyone at the guild and become accustomed to life there. Everyday, he would come to the guildhall with his family and spend most of the day in the kitchen as the guildhall's cook, waitstaff, and bartender. When not working in the kitchen, he was helping the kids around the guild with learning about magic. He would teach Erza swordsmanship, help the children he saved from the R-System navigate the Fairy Tail Archives, and standby for safety reasons when the kids were practicing their magic. Shirou had actually taken a little initiative to learn a form of magic that didn't inherently involve swords, attempting to learn Take-Over Magic and create his own style like his siblings. Between his job in the guildhall and his relationship to all of the kids, Shirou thought he had a very good grasp of who everyone in the guild was.

However, there was one person he had meet who Shirou just couldn't get a grasp of. When Shirou first arrived at the guild as a mercenary delivering a couple of orphans, this person was the first that he spoke to. That person was Laxus Dreyar, Master Makarov's only grandson, lightning mage extraordinaire, and the only other person in the entire guild that was Shirou's age.

While working behind the bar, Shirou would often try to hold conversations with the young man. After all, that was the nature of his job as cook/waiter/bartender. Sadly, his attempts at friendliness were usually met with indifference at best, hostility at worst. Laxus in general seemed rather hard to get along with. He rarely spoke to others, was always in his own little corner of the guildhall, and was constantly antagonizing the kids, especially Natsu. Although, in fairness, Laxus just ignored the young Dragon Slayer and Natsu was just really easy to antagonize.

Still, even with that one less than pleasant relationship within the guild, Shirou loved being a member of Fairy Tail. The people were friendly (for the most part) and full of life (maybe a bit too much at times). The job he was given behind the bar paid well and involved something he loved to do. Still, he was a mage of a magic guild, and constantly doing work behind a bar, while enjoyable, was not the only job that was suitable for him. He still very much wanted to be able to help people and doing jobs posted on the guild's job board was the perfect gateway towards finding those in need. Thus, Shirou found himself standing in front of the job board, searching for a suitable first job.

While working as a freelance mercenary, Shirou had encountered, accepted, and completed many similar jobs to what mages were expected to do. However, he had never seen such a large variety of jobs before. There were requests to break curses, decrypt ancient texts, recover stolen property, repairing magical tools, and so much more. Sadly, while Shirou had a huge variety of missions available to him only a small handful of jobs were actually viable for him to attempt, those being jobs that required skills in repairing things with traditional methods and jobs that involved fighting. With that in mind, he settled on a simple pest control job, fighting off and repelling the Gorian population living in the forests outside a nearby town. The job was simple enough and paid fairly well, a solid 200,000 Jewels. Thus, Shirou attempted to take the flyer for the job and claim the right to attempt it. However, another hand grabbed the flyer at the same time as he did, much to the eldest Strauss's surprise. Looking to his left, Shirou saw that the owner of the other hand was none other than the ever aloof Laxus.

"Do you mind?" Laxus asked, clearly irritated, "I kinda wanted an excuse to punch something, so if you don't want to be the outlet I use, I suggest you hand over flyer so I can be on my way."

"Okay, sheesh," Shirou conceded, not wanting a confrontation, "No need to be so brutal about it."

"Why are you even taking a job, anyway? Aren't you supposed to be the cook or something?" Laxus asked disrespectfully.

"Yes, but I'm also a mage in this guild, and a somewhat capable one at that," Shirou clarified.

"Yeah, like I'd believe that," Laxus scoffed under his breath.

"… Dude, I first walked into the guildhall as a mercenary in full body armor after rescuing some kids from slavery," Shirou deadpanned, "Not only that, you were the first person I talked too that day. You of all people should know what kind of background I have, and that was only a little over a week ago."

"Still calling your bluff on being a capable mage," the blond teen replied.

"Well, looks like you two are getting along nicely," Master Makarov greeted as he approached the two young men.

"I wouldn't go that far," Shirou grimaced, finding Laxus just as difficult to talk to as ever.

"Whatever," Laxus sighed, holding out the job flying to his grandfather, "I'll be going on this job, Gramps.

"The Gorian Pest Control job, huh?" the short man pondered, taking the flyer, "Shirou seemed to be pretty interested in the job as well. Why don't the two of you go on this job together?"

"Yeah right. Like I'd bring dead weight along with me," Laxus scoffed, "I can handle this by myself."

"Oh, I'm certain you could. It's Shirou I'm worried about," Makarov insisted, "He's a new member of the guild. He's going to need someone else to show him the ropes around here. Plus, it might be good for you to be able to interact with someone your own age for once."

"I'm better on me own, old man," Laxus growled.

"If it would make things better for you, I'd gladly take a pay cut," Shirou butt in, much to the surprise of the two Dreyars, "We can split it 75-25 if you want. I'm not that starved for cash and I'm really doing this for experience. I can go even lower if you'd like."

"Tsk. Still not interested," Laxus clicked his tongue, clearly annoyed by Shirou's goodwill.

"If not Shirou, why not one of the many children he brought along with him instead?" Makarove suggested, a threat subtly present in his voice, "I'm sure they are in much greater need of an orientation that Shirou is anyway."

Glancing over his shoulder, Laxus eyed the other new recruits to Fairy Tail all gathered together at one of the guildhalls tables. Children like Jellal and Simon were well-behaved enough, spending most of their time nose deep in books covering various forms of magic theory. The same thing could be said about Sho and Sorano. The former was watching Cana with wide eyes as she explained and demonstrated everything that she could about Card magic. Meanwhile, the latter was scanning magic magazines at the collection of Celestial Spirit Keys that could be purchased from markets.

However, all the other children looked to be massive headaches. The likes of Wally, Richard, Sawyer, Erik, and Macbeth were also studying magic theory, but they often got distracted and goofed off like most children do. Currently, they were egging on Natsu and Gray as the pair inevitably ended up in another fight. As for Erza, she and Mira where in a perpetual glaring contest whenever Shirou wasn't looking.

While Shirou might have been able to contribute to a job in some way, it was clear that being forced to take any one of the new children in the guild to a job would be nothing but a hinderance. Between a teen with some experience as a mercenary and a child or group of children that have yet to learn any practical magic, it was clear which was the lesser of two evils for Laxus.

"Fine, I'll take the cook along," Laxus conceded with a sigh, "Just take care of the paperwork, old man."

"That is one of my many responsibilities as guild master," Makarov nodded.

"Hey, newbie," Laxus called out as he headed towards the guildhall front door, "Meet me at the train station in an hour. Bring your own cash, I'm not paying for your ticket."

Laxus left the guildhall in a huff, barely sparing his newly forced upon partner another thought. Once his grandson was out of earshot, Makarov turned to the eldest Strauss siblings and let out a heavy sigh.

"I'm terribly sorry about Laxus," Makarov apologized, "He used to be such a sweet kid. Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do with him."

"Don't worry, I understand. I have Mirajane as a little sister, remember?" Shirou replied, waving off the issue.

"Still, I really am sorry," Makarov bowed, "I also need to ask a favor from you. Could you please not be so hard on Laxus? I really do think having proper interactions with someone his own age will help him."

"I'll do what I can," Shirou nodded in reply.

* * *

In preparation for his first job as a mage of Fairy Tail, Shirou made a quick stop at home to pick up his gear. Digging up his old mercenary gear, the eldest Strauss sibling collected his old armor and knapsack in the event the job took longer than expected and he and Laxus needed to stay the night somewhere.

However, he did not collect all his armor. After coming to terms with the fact that us old gear was rather intimidating to both targets and clients, Shirou opted to only grab the leather pants, metal tipped shoes, and his black, sleeveless, chest plate that he usually wore under his red coat. Looking at himself in the mirror, he had to admit that the new look was rather stylish, showing that he was strong and meant business while also remaining rather friendly and approachable.

In his knapsack, Shirou packed away an extra set of clothes for a potential overnight trip and a couple books on Take-Over Magic theory he had picked from the Fairy Tail Archives and Magnolia library. He also brought a medical kit and some emergency rations in case the mission somehow when horribly wrong, though it was unlikely given the job was just to deal with a couple of Gorians. With his gear collected and his knapsack packed, the former mercenary headed for the train station to meet with his temporary partner.

When Shirou arrived at Magnolia Station, he was greeted by the sight of Laxus waiting outside of the front door. The white-haired young man greeted his blond guildmate with a wave but got no such curtesy in return. All the other teen did was grumble at his undesired partner to hurry up and pay for his ticket so they could leave for their job. However, Shirou was stopped when he heard three familiar voices calling out to him.

"Shirou-nii!" Mirajane, Elfman, and Lisanna yelled as they ran after their brother.

"Hey you three," Shirou greeted them warmly, "What are you doing here?"

"Seeing you off, of course," Elfman replied, "It's your first mission as a real man of Fairy Tail, so we wanted to see you off."

"How come you didn't tell us about this!" Mira demanded, looking rather angry, "Family Contract Article 6: We're not supposed to keep secrets!"

Shirou couldn't help but give his family a pained smile. While he was happy that they had the contract to help keep their bonds strong, it also pained him greatly to know that he was also constantly breaking it. Article 6: We're not supposed to keep secrets. Article 32: Never ever tell a lie. These were the two articles he broke constantly to uphold Article 17: No matter what may happen, always protect your family. He kept secrets about his past life and lied about the origin of his magic. His only saving grace in this conundrum was Article 111: No matter what, family will always trust in one another. Even then, it could be argued that he broke that article too by betraying their trust.

Still, he would do whatever it took to protect their smiles. He lost them once before. He would never let it happen again.

"Sorry, sorry! I just forgot to tell you before I left. Laxus here is a bit of a stickler and I didn't want to make him angry. We're just heading to Onibus to deal with a Gorian infestation," Shirou laughed, holding out his pinky finger, "Family Contract Article 7: Always say where you're going when you leave the house."

"Are you sure that going with this guy is a good idea?" Mira asked skeptically, "He looks pretty shady to me."

"What was that, brat?" Laxus fired back, "I couldn't hear you from all the way down there."

"What did you say?!" the teenage girl yelled, attempting the tackle the older boy to the ground.

Thankfully for all parties involved, Shirou was able to catch his little sister before she could start throwing punches. Laxus, for his part, couldn't care less about what was going on. As far as he was concerned, there was no way a thirteen-year-old girl was going to be able to over power him, even if she could take on a demon's powers.

"Easy there, battle princess," Shirou instructed, pushing the girl back, "I'm sure Laxus is trustworthy. He's a veteran member of the guild and the master's grandson. There's no doubt he will be of help."

"You sure you're going to be okay?" Lisanna asked, a little concerned for her brother.

Her fears weren't unfounded. The last time Shirou went on what could constitute as a hunting trip, he ended up in a ravine and presumed dead for a year.

"Pinkie swear," Shirou promised, holding out his pinkie finger, "Family Contract Article 12: Don't get yourself nearly killed by a monster."

While their brother's promise gave the children some semblance of comfort, Lisanna still couldn't be completely sure. Thus, she turned directly towards Laxus, looking him in the eye.

"Laxus-san, please take care of Shirou-nii," the young girl begged with a bow, "We couldn't bare to lose him again. Please make sure he comes home safely."

Normally, Laxus wouldn't spare kids like Lisanna a single thought, seeing it as a waste of time. However, something about the little girl begging for her brother's safety stirred something in him. Even someone as aloof as him couldn't say "no" to such a genuine and honest request.

"Sure," Laxus replied, avoiding eye contact.

Upon hearing the blond teen's response, the little girl beamed immediately. Lisanna had always been an excellent judge of character, and she could tell that Laxus, while still acting distant, was intent on making sure her brother got homes safely. Now insured that her brother would be in good hands, Lisanna turned back to her eldest brother, holding her pinkie finger up along side him. Mira and Elfman followed suit, initiating their newly established family tradition.

"Family Contract Article 8," Lisanna recited, "When leaving, say 'I'll be back.'"

"Family Contract Article 9: Never say, 'Goodbye'. Always say, 'See you later'," Shirou replied in turn, "I'll be back."

"See you later," his family beamed back.

Having said his farewell, Shirou turned to Laxus and nodded, signaling he was ready to leave. Having seen the whole scene play out, the blond boy gave his compatriot a puzzled glance, which was returned with a lighthearted chuckle from the eldest Strauss sibling. Not saying anything else, the newest member of Fairy Tail quickly bought his ticket for the next train to Onibus, following the veteran to their shared destination.

Throughout the train ride, the pair of mages remained mostly silent. Shirou occupied himself with one of his books on Take-Over Magic theory while Laxus opted to listen to music on the pair of headphones he always carried around with him. However, something was nagging at the blond mage. After seeing the display that the Strauss family had in front of Magnolia station, he couldn't help but be a bit curious about it. What was the big deal with this "Family Contract"? Against his better judgement, the lightning mage asked his compatriot about it.

"Hey, Newbie," Laxus asked gruffly.

"Yes, Laxus?" Shirou replied respectfully, looking up from his book, "Is there something you need?"

"What was with that 'Family Contract' you and those kids were babbling about?"

"That's what you want to know about?" Shirou chuckled, "Well, you won't be the first."

"Just answer the question," Laxus grumbled, not pleased with how Shirou was replying so far.

Putting down his book with a sigh, Shirou pondered for a moment on how to respond. While had explained the purpose of the Family Contract many times over the last week, he was usually met with a response of confused acceptance, as if the people he explained it to didn't quite understand but thought it was cool or sweet anyway. He couldn't settle for that this time. Laxus was a hard egg to crack, so his usual response probably wouldn't mean much to him at face value. Thus, Shirou decided to start from the beginning.

"Have you ever heard of the phrase 'You never know what you have until its gone'?" Shirou inquired.

"Who hasn't?" Laxus replied sarcastically.

"A long time I go, I learned just how that true that saying actually was," Shirou said with a solemn smile, "I valued my family more than anything else. All I ever wanted to do was protect them and keep them safe. The thought of leaving them all alone was enough to push me forward, even when on the brink of death. But then, I thought I had lost them, and it tore my apart. My life felt meaningless. I became a wanderer, a machine, just aimlessly traveling and making myself useful to anyone who deserved the help. When I found them again at Fairy Tail, I resolved to never lose them ever again. We created the contract so we could be sure that we would never be without one another ever again. It ensures that we always know that we value each other and that we will live our lives together for as long as possible. Family Contract Article 17: No matter what may happen, always protect your family."

"Is that so?" Laxus smirked.

In all honesty, the whole idea seemed a bit stupid to the blond mage. It seemed like a waste of time to remember a little over a dozen rules just to let your family know you care, but it was also admirable. There was a level of devotion to it that reminded Laxus of his younger years with his grandfather. It brought back memories of when his grandpa would go out of his way to accompany him at the Magnolia's Fantasia Parade instead of participating in them himself or when he stepped aside so Laxus could have the spotlight at the parade.

"I guess that's kinda nice," Laxus admitted, "Though, it must be annoying to have to remember seventeen articles of a made-up contract just to make your family happy."

"It's not exactly seventeen articles," Shirou chuckled, "More like one hundred thirteen."

"A hundred thirteen!" the blond mage yelled, "What the hell is in that contract?! Guidelines for handling future boyfriends?!"

"Actually, there is an article for that," the white-haired boy shrugged, "Article 100: All boyfriends and girlfriends must be given approval."

Laxus could barely believe what he was hearing. The Strauss family had a mental contract that spanned a hundred thirteen articles. From what he had seen, they were completely devoted to this contract and memorized it in its entirety. The whole concept was just plain insane, especially with little kids involved.

"Mind if I ask you something myself?" Shirou requested, knocking Laxus out of his stupor.

"Huh? Oh, sure," Laxus agreed, wanting any excuse to move away from the topic of the Strauss Family Contract.

"What exactly are Gorians?" Shirou inquired, "I've seen a lot of things during my time as a mercenary, but I've never encountered that species of monster before."

"I guess it would be best to get you filled in on what we're dealing with," Laxus nodded, "They're a species of ape-like monsters that live all over Fiore in different habitats. The actual species name is Vulcan; Gorian is just the forest variety. There are even rumored to be other subspecies of Vulcans beyond just the environmental variations."

"What about combat ability?" Shirou asked, putting on his serious face, "Strengths, weaknesses, any magic they use."

"They're pretty big, the bastards," Laxus noted, "About three or four times larger than the average human man in muscle mass. They're also capable of a form of Take-Over Magic. If they're close to death and a human man happens to be nearby, they're souls can transfer over to the human body and overpower the human soul for dominance, transforming the body into that of a Vulcan. If the original soul can't break free within a certain amount of time, that body becomes the Vulcan's body, effectively killing the person they possessed."

"And they only target men?" Shirou continued, unsettled the how specific the gender was.

"That's the disgusting part. Vulcans and their subspecies are a solely male race using stolen bodies," the blond mage explained, "To reproduce, they kidnap human women that wander too close to their territory and use them to bare their offspring. The women don't even have to be completely mature either. As long as it's human and doesn't have something dangling between their legs, the Vulcans will take them and save them until they can bare children. Doesn't help that they're unapologetic perverts."

"So that's why that job request was on the request board," Shirou deduced, "Onibus doesn't want a large pack of perverted monsters near their boarders. If they settle there, anyone that gets too close will be targeted."

"You got it," Laxus nodded, "You still up for this? It's not too late to turn back."

"Not a chance," Shirou replied, a determined fire present in his eyes, "You said that the human soul can break free and reclaim the body. It there any way to help in breaking the possession?"

"Not in later stages of the process," the lightning mage lamented, "Once the eyes have lost their pupils and start glowing, the human soul is long gone and all that's left is the Vulcan soul."

"I see," Shirou mused, staring intensely out the train window.

'These things are dangerous,' the sword mage thought to himself, 'I can't possibly step away from this.'

* * *

Once the pair arrived at Onibus, Shirou and Laxus made their way to city hall to meet the mayor. As the client who originally sent out the request, it was required that the two mages met with the mayor to confirm their arrival and to get the full details of their mission. As it turns out, the mission was as simple as it was on the flyer. The pair's job was simply to drive off the Gorian pack that settled in the East Forest territory on the boarder of the city. The reasons for the job were just as Shirou and Laxus deduced as well, being made out of concern for the citizens' safety. Said reasons for the job were also kept a secret from the population as to not create panic. Of course, there was to be minimum damage to the flora and fauna already present, unless the mages wished to have a pay deduction.

When asked about the safety of the citizens, the mayor was pleased to report that no one had been reported missing as of yet. The Gorian nest had only forced recently, so when local authorities took notice, they quickly forbid entrance into the East Forest to prevent any casualties. No men had gotten close enough to be turned into Gorians and no women had been kidnapped for procreation. With that reassuring news in mind, Shirou and Laxus ventured into the East Forest on Gorian hunt.

The East Forest itself was both a place of beauty and terror. It covered most of the southeastern corner of Fiore, bordering towns such as Magonlia and Onibus. The trees that filled it were lush and green, brimming with life. However, they also held dark secrets in their shadows, such as terrible beasts waiting for a chance to ambush unsuspecting prey. It was a place that embodied both the wonder and dangers of magic in the natural world. And now, Shirou and Laxus had to venture into it to protect the nearby city.

"Stay on your guard," Shirou ordered as they trekked through the forest, "There's no telling where and when the Gorians might attack."

"I don't you need you to tell me that, newbie," Laxus snapped at the young man to his left, "This isn't my first mission. Just don't drag me down with you if you slip up."

As the two mages wandered deeper into the forest, Shirou couldn't help but notice just how quiet everything was. Aside from the sound of running water from the river nearby, there was absolute silence. However, this only alerted Shirou even more. Reinforcing his ears, the newbie member of Fairy Tail increased his hearing ability so he could pick up even the slightest sounds, even those that would be drowned out by the river. He could easily distinguish between the sounds he and Laxus were making from those of his surroundings, so the moment he heard something out of place, he would act.

A moment later, Shirou heard a twig snap under a foot several meters away at his two o'clock. Acting quickly, Shirou Projected his bow and a single arrow. Before anyone could react, the archer nocked his arrow, took aim, and fired, sending the arrow flying away and out of sight.

As the arrow flew in front of his face, Laxus couldn't help but notice the look in Shirou's eyes. His eyes were cold and calculated, lacking any of the warmth they held when the man was behind a countertop cooking or when he conversed with children. They were they eyes of a man on a mission, someone who had found their target and had no intention of letting them get away. It was as if Shirou had become a completely different person.

No sooner after the arrow disappeared into the foliage, a vicious scream was heard, causing much of the forest to shake. Once the screaming stopped, a large, green, gorilla like monster revealed itself from the shadows before falling over, dead from an arrow in its heart.

"How did you…"

"I'll explain later," Shirou ordered, Projecting his two most trusted swords, "Just get ready. I've already killed one, so the entire pack will be on us soon enough."

True to Shirou's words, several dozen more monsters, the Gorians, emerged from the shadows of the forest. They all looked furious, most likely because a certain mage just offed one of their brethren. Their blank, white, glowing eyes seethed with rage. Seeing the fight they were about to have on their hands, the two members of Fairy Tail put their backs to one another, watching on as the Gorians surrounded them.

"Men kill friend!" Men bad!" one of the monsters roared.

"Kill men! Avenge friend!" another Gorian cried, rallying the rest of the pack.

"Nice move, newbie," Laxus snarked, "Now we're completely surrounded."

"We were surrounded to begin with. They were just waiting for the perfect time to strike," Shirou deflected, "Besides, you wanted an excuse to punch something, right? I count about five dozen potential candidates."

Despite himself, Laxus couldn't help but smirk at the prospect of beating up all of the Gorians around them to a pulp. He's been needing to blow off some steam for a while, and Shirou had just helped to bring out multiple targests, which the blond mage could appreciate. Noticing the smirk on his partner's face, Shirou couldn't help but smirk himself, seeing as he finally managed to find something that could get Laxus to show some sort of positive, unironic, emotion. With their mission objective in front of and all around them, the two mages charged head first into the fray.

As a practitioner of Lightning Magic, Laxus was an expert at generating and discharging magical energy as electricity. Transforming into a lightning bolt, the young mage zipped around the forest and through the plethora of monsters, electrocuting them to their cores. Once he managed to get out of the crowd, Laxus returned to a physical form and turned around to face the Gorians horde as they charged at him. Not about to let up, the lightning mage held his arms out in front of him and unleashed a surge of electricity, leaving many of the Gorians charred or paralyzed. He then charged back into the crowd, fist full of lightning swing.

At the other end of the battle, Shirou was bobbing and weaving through the Gorain pack with both grace and ferocity. He easily avoided all the monsters trying to land hits on him while slashing away at those that got to close with Kanshou and Bakuya. One Gorian attempted to catch the sword mage by surprise by diving low, but Shirou was one step ahead of it. Once the Gorian dove, Shirou jumped up and used the monster as a springboard. Now above the heads of the monster pack, Shirou Projected two more pairs of his signature blades, giving him a total six swords which he held between his fingers. He then threw all six swords into the crowd, each one in a different direction.

Kanshou and Bakuya had a special property in which each blade was drawn towards its counterpart. Throw them in a crowd with several additional pairs of the swords and you have frenzy of spinning blades flying everywhere as they pull themselves towards one of any copy of their partner. Their flight paths were extremely difficult to trace since the swords' destinations would change every time their relative proximity to their counterparts changed, which was constantly. The Gorians could do nothing as they were assaulted with a fury of slashes that came from practically random directions.

Landing on a tree branch, Shirou looked into the crowd of Gorians to see Laxus having a ball bashing away at the monsters. The sword mage couldn't help but smirk at how much his partner was enjoying himself. It seemed all Fairy Tail mages loved to fight, especially if it meant flexing their magic. However, that smirk turned into a glare when he saw a stray Gorian about to ambush the lightning mage. Acting quickly, Shirou once again Projected his bow and an arrow and fired at the monster. The arrow landed between the monster's eyes with a thud, earning Shirou his partner's attention.

"Watch your six, Sparky. Master's going to have my head if I don't bring you back to the guild in one piece," Shirou remarked as he nocked several more arrows in his bow.

"Who the hell do you think I am? It'll take more than one Gorian just to bring me down," Laxus replied, releasing a massive lightning pulse to prove his point, "You're not doing too bad, newbie."

"Same to you," Shirou complimented, firing more arrows down from his tree perch.

The fight was going well for the two mages. Compared to Shirou and Laxus, the Gorians didn't stand a chance. While the monsters had superior numbers and physical strength, the mages had far more skill and their magics were both versatile and powerful. One would be forgiven if they mistaken the mages as the monsters give how much they dominated the battle field.

However, the battle field began to shift in the Gorians' favor, quite literally. As Laxus continued to hammer away at the pack of monsters, the ground beneath his feet began to swell into a small hill. Noticing something was off, the lightning mage quickly transformed into electricity and zipped away, barely avoiding the explosion that went off at the hill. The battle fell into a temporary silence as everyone present stared in shock and awe at what had arrived.

In the middle of the newly formed crater was a whole new kind of monster. It's shape and structure were very much like all Vulcan type monsters, but it was much larger than the other Gorians, at least three times their size. Its body was coated with naturally forming stone plating, giving it a suit of armor that made it much sturdier than other Vulcans. It was none other than the rumored subspecies of Gorian, the Rock Gorian.

"You going to regret attacking pack!" the Rock Gorian growled, staring straight at Laxus.

Seeing this new monster in front of him, Laxus wasted no time blasting it with as much electricity as he could muster in a single attack. However, the Rock Gorian was not even fazed by the attack. Being covered entirely in stone armor, the monster was fitted with a very effective insulator from Laxus's electric attacks. Since ranged attacks were having no effect, the lightning mage tried to get in close and use lightning enhanced strikes to do the job. Unfortunately, thunder punches weren't going to do much against stone armor, leaving Laxus open to a counter attack. Thankfully, he was fast enough to step back and dodge, keeping himself out of the crater the Rock Gorian created with its punch. Seeing his partner in trouble, Shirou acted quickly and fired several explosive arrows into the Rock Gorian's back, stunning it for a moment.

"Hey Laxus, I think it's about time we actually drove these things away," Shirou called out from his tree perch.

"And how do you propose we do that, Brainiac?" Laxus asked sarcastically, punching out another Gorian trying to take advantage of the lightning mage's perceived vulnerability.

"Get out of the line of fire and I'll show you," Shirou invited, gesturing to the spot on the tree branch next to him.

Although initially reluctant, Laxus decided to at least give the newbie a chance. If it worked, then they get to complete their job and get paid. If not, the Laxus has something to laugh about when the get back to the guild after he took care of completing the job himself. Really, he had nothing to lose from humoring the new member. Transforming into lightning once again, the blond teen joined his partner on the tree branch with an expecting look on his face.

"Well, care to share what exactly you have planned?" Laxus asked, mildly curious what Shirou would possible do.

Wordlessly, Shirou raised his hand over his head as he called upon his magic. In an instant, dozens of swords appeared around him. The spanned a large part of the area, leaving very little space in the forest safe. Each sword was unique, consisting of several different types, styles, and designs. Most of them were mundane, but a few radiated power on their own, possessing either enchantments or status as low ranking Noble Phantasms. With a single motion, Shirou dropped his hand and released the swords with a single command.

"Sword Barrel, Full Open!"

On Shirou's command, all of the swords fell from their suspended positions in midair, starting with the swords located in the west. Frightened for their lives and desperate to escape the storm of blades, the Gorians ran eastward, going further into the forest and away from Onibus. As the swords planted themselves into the forest ground, dust and dirt was thrown into the air, leaving everyone, mages and Gorians, in the dark as to where everyone was going. Some unfortunate monsters got caught up in the maelstrom of steel and wrought iron and never escaped the dust cloud while the rest managed to find their way out and continued running.

Among the Gorians that failed to escape was the Rock Gorian, whose armor made him significantly slower than the others of his species. The swords rained down on the monster, embedding themselves into its armor and breaking it apart. Soon enough the armor was completely gone, leaving the unfortunate beast to perish in the raining steel.

When the swords stopped falling, the entire battle field was coated in a dust cloud. Not a sound was heard from within the dust, indicating there were no living souls present inside. The Gorian pack had fled and it wasn't going to be coming back any time soon.

Laxus could hardly believe what he had just seen. With simple wave of his hand, the mage next to him created a massive number of swords from nothing but magic energy. He did it so easily and comfortably, as if he had been doing so for a long time. The same could be said about Shirou's ability in armed combat. While he didn't pay too much attention to his partner as they were fighting off the horde, Laxus saw glances of swordsmanship that were clearly above amateur level, even if it did look a bit off. And then there was the way Shirou observed and analyzed his surroundings. It was unreal how sensitive his senses were, and Laxus was secretly a Dragon Slayer thanks to the Lacrima his father implanted in him all those years ago.

"You are insane, you know that?!" Laxus yelled, completely shocked, "What kind of maniac uses swords as projectile weapons?!"

"I can think of at least two other people," Shirou shrugged.

Looking at Shirou now, Laxus couldn't help but notice how much more approachable he seemed now that the fight was over. Just like before, it was as if his personality flipped with the hit of a switch.

"You are way too calm about this," Laxus deadpanned, "Seriously, you have some major power at your disposal. You'd probably be in the running for one of the guild's strongest, and you just joined like a week ago."

"You think so? I've never seen myself as that special," the sword mage shrugged, "I'm just a family man with a talent for making swords and food. That's all."

Laxus could barely believe what he was hearing. Shirou had all this power at his disposal, but he was completely humble about it. He didn't seem himself as anyone special, just a guy who loved his family and had a particular talent. The thought of it was ridiculous, but at the same time respectable. It wasn't too often you find someone with his level of approachability. The lightning mage couldn't help but smirk at the though.

"You're alright, man," Laxus said, giving his temporary partner a pat on the back.

"Same to you," Shirou replied, "So, shall we head back into town and claim our reward."

"May as well," Laxus shrugged.

The two mages were about to jump of the tree branch and head into Onibus but stopped when they noticed that the dust cloud from earlier had settled, revealing the forest below them. It was complete devastation. Craters and gashes peppered the ground where swords had impacted and trees were torn apart or singed from the swords and lightning that the two mages had been throwing around. All the grass had died from the stampeding Gorians and surging lighting and the place looked like it would be uninhabitable for at least a few months without human intervention to restore it. Shirou and Laxus were completely baffled by what they saw, Shirou because he never considered himself a destructive person and Laxus because of the rising trend he was noticing.

"Guess you really are a Fairy Tail mage," Laxus sighed, "Looks like we're taking a pay cut for this."

* * *

With their job completed and a large, noticeable portion of the Onibus East Forest destroyed, Shirou and Laxus returned to city hall to report to their client, the mayor. As Laxus predicted, the pair were forced to give up half of their reward to help cover the repair costs, leaving them with half of what they were originally promised. Luckily for Shirou, Laxus had come to respect his power and appreciate his humility and was more than happy to split the reward money they did get evenly, so both walked away with a solid 50,000 Jewels.

The train ride back to Magnolia was much more talkative. Through out the entire trip, the two mages conversed back and forth about a multitude of topics. Shirou shared things like how his magic works and the Family Contract he and his siblings had in place, the later of which still daunted Laxus with how long it was. Laxus shared with Shirou things such as his family's history and tips on understanding the magic theory behind Take-Over Magic, which helped Shirou greatly considering his ineptitude to other forms of magic.

When the pair returned to the Fairy Tail guildhall, they were greeted by both their respective families. Upon seeing their older brother, Mirajane, Elfman, and Lisanna all jumped Shirou upon his return, knocking him on to the ground as they nearly suffocated him in a hug. Laxus couldn't help but chuckle at the sight. After all, you wouldn't expect someone of Shirou's power to be so easily knocked over by a hug of all things.

Sadly, the meeting with Makarov was not as welcoming. By the time the pair returned to the guild, the guild master had received the report from the Magic Council about the most recent incident that the members of the guild had inflicted on towns during their jobs. The old man was furious at the two for causing so much trouble, especially since this was Shirou's first job as a member of Fairy Tail. At this rate, the entire guild was going to get a reputation of all its members being inherently destructive upon joining.

However, that anger didn't last for long. As soon as Makarov finished telling off Shirou and Laxus for causing so much destruction, he immediately expressed his joy at the fact that the two of them appeared to be getting along so well. Upon hearing this, Laxus immediately denied it, purposefully avoiding eye contact with everyone present. Shirou couldn't help but chuckled at his partner's reaction and was subtly reminded of a certain woman that he held very dear to his heart in his previous life.

Having said his piece, Makarov started to return to his office to sort out the paperwork he had been given by the Magic Council. However, he stopped when he saw Natsu running up to the group with a wide grin on his face, one that did not bode will in the guild master's eyes.

"Hey Shirou, is it true?!" Natsu yelled, running up to the sword mage.

"Is what true?" Shirou asked, completely lost as to what Natsu was asking about.

"I heard that you completely tore apart a large portion of the Onibus East Forest!" Natsu replied with gusto, "It must have been so cool! Can you teach me how to do that?!"

Upon hearing the Dragon Slayer's request, the many people in the group let out a wide variety of reactions. Makarov pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, imagining the horror that would be an even more destructive Natsu. Mira and Laxus had burst into laughter at the request, taken back by how absurd it was. Lisanna, Elfman, and Shirou also laughed upon hearing Natsu's request, though theirs were much stiffer and more humorless than Laxus and Mirajane's laughs.

"I'm pretty sure you can already destroy forests just fine with your brand of magic," Shirou laughed awkwardly.

"Come on, Natsu, let's head to the courtyard outback," Lisanna insisted, grabbing the Dragon Slayer by the hand, "We need you on fire safety while everyone else is trying to practice their magic. We don't want to have to throw Jellal into the lake again just because he misfires one of his spells."

"Wait! Shirou still hasn't told me how he pulled of destroying so much forest!" Natsu whined as he was dragged away.

With the Natsu issue taken care of, Makarov, Mirajane, and Elfman went off to take care of their own business. Makarov was off to his office to take care of the paperwork spawned form Shirou and Laxus's destructive workmanship, while Mira and Elfman went to the back courtyard of the guildhall to help oversee the magic training of the new recruits. Thus, the pair of teenage mages were left alone in the middle of the guildhall to pursue their own devices.

"So…," Shirou trailed awkwardly, "Care for a meal? On the house."

"You sure you want to do that? Gramps might have a go at you if you give away free food like that," Laxus warned.

"I'll cover the cost. It will basically come out of my own paycheck," Shirou insisted, "Besides, you just used a lot of energy fighting off Gorians. An army moves on its stomachs, after all. Plus, I enjoy cooking after stuff like this. Helps me relax."

"Okay then," Laxus accepted, taking a seat at the bar, "I'll take you up on that offer."

"What will you have?" Shirou asked as he walked behind the bar.

"Surprise me," the lightning mage challenged, "Let's see the best that the chef has to recommend."

"Challenge accepted," the cook replied, strapping on his pink apron.

Going into the back of the guildhall's kitchen, Shirou brought out a chicken breast, salt, pepper, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, cooking sake, flour, corn starch, eggs, and cooking oil. After cutting the chicken into bite sized pieces, he marinated it with a mixture of the salt, pepper, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and cooking sake. Once the chicken was thoroughly marinated, Shirou dipped the pieces in an egg wash before coating them in a mixture of flour and con starch. With the chicken fully prepared, he deep fried the pieces in the cooking oil, taking them out every so often so he could make a crack in the exteriors to let the oil seep in and cook the chicken through. Once Shirou was sure the dish was completely cooked, he removed the chicken from the oil, let the residual oil drip off, and gathered placed the finished dish in a bowl and presenting it to Laxus.

"Karaage Deep Fried Chicken is served," Shirou said as he placed the dish in front of the lightning mage, "Please enjoy."

Inspecting the dish in front of him, Laxus had to admit that presentation was spot on. The chicken was golden brown, and the smell was definitely appealing. However, he also knew the oldest gag in the book, in which a dish that looks absolutely appetizing was actually deadly due to the use of inedible materials. Of course, he had seen Shirou cook before and other people's reactions told him that most would agree it tasted good. However, Laxus would not make any final judgements until he tasted it for himself.

Taking his fork in hand, Laxus picked up a piece of chicken and gingerly placed it in his mouth. To his amazement, the food tasted just as amazing as everyone claimed it would be. The exterior was crunchy, and the chicken was chewy. The whole dish oozed with the flavor of the marinade and the chicken's natural juices. It was honestly some of the best food he had ever had.

"So, how is it?" Shirou asked, looking rather pleased with himself."

"I will admit, you're good," Laxus admitted as he took another bite, "Guess you really can be a mage and a cook."

"Glad you liked it," Shirou smiled.

While it may have taken a bit of time, Shirou felt like he understood Laxus. He may act aloof all the time, but he was actually a pretty decent guy. All he really needed was someone he could talk to and respect, something that was hard to find when you're a teen in a group consisting mostly of adults and children. Shirou was just thankful that he was just the kind of guy Laxus needed.

* * *

 **Special End Card Segment: Animan Temple**

 **Up at the top of a mountain peak in an indistinguishable mountain range sat the Animan Temple, which was currently facing a dilemma regarding the number of occupants staying in it. The temple was the victim of a strange phenomenon in which the dojo of one Taiga Fujimura ended up lodged in the middle of the temple's common room. Unable to move the dojo from its unusual place, the residents of the temple agreed to share the space until something could get sorted out. Unfortunately, the two owners of the now merged space, Animan von Elysium X and Taiga Fujimura, were equally temperamental, leading to the two of them to end up in a pointless argument once again, this time over how space should be divided.**

 **"Hello everyone. Ray O'Niell here with Priestess Number 1 and Student Number 1 for another Animan Temple," the skull mask wearing co-host greeted with a wave.**

 **"As you can see, Master and Shishou have ended up in another pointless battle arguing over how to divide space in the temple," HImegami sighed, gesturing to the pair of immature adults arguing behind them.**

 **"You'd think they would learn to get along by now, especially after what this chapter had been about," Illya complained.**

 **"It must have to do with how similar their personalities are," Ray mused, "They're so temperamental that the slightest action from either of them will provoke the other."**

 **"It's almost like one had their personality copied from the other. Himegami noted.**

 **As the fighting in the background continued, it soon spiraled out of control to the point that two swordsmen ended up causing massive amounts of collateral damage. Swinging their swords wildly, Animan and Taiga ended up tearing apart everything in the dojo/common room. What was particularly alarming was the fact that Taiga's Torashinai had no cutting edge, but she somehow managed to do twice as much damage as the duel wielding Animan. Seeing such reckless damage come to the temple, the normally calm Ray finally snapped at his compatriots' antics.**

 **"Would you two cut it out already?!" the skull masked man yelled, his eyes burning with eerie flames.**

 **"Aye!" the two bickering swordsmen complied, hugging each other for comfort from the masked man's gaze.**

 **"We'll see you all next time once we get this all sorted out," Illya said with a smile, saying her farewells on part of the whole group.**


	4. In Training

**Sorry for the wait everyone. I have sadly been preoccupied with other matters for the last month or so since I am a college student, so please forgive me for the long wait. However, now that summer is here, I might be able to write and post more consistently now, so maybe it will all work out. For now, let's get some review responses out there so we can get to the chapter you all came here to see.**

 _bluefish1945: Yup, really wanted to sell Shirou and Laxus's early friendship here. All to make it more tragic when certain events roll around. It's Shirou, you can bet girls will be clamoring all over him soon enough._

 _Rodvek97: Glad you liked it._

 _doraemax: Currently, there are no plans to give Shirou too large a variety of magic to work with. For one, Requip is pretty redundant since he can already create an unlimited supply of high quality weapons. Other forms of magic being added would just be too much of a departure from the original character, which is being stretched pretty far enough as is. A majority of the early stages of the story have already been planned out. I can say that I time skip is planned for 3 years prior to the start of the original story, so during the Beast incident. What happens up until that point is a surprise._

 _sandmanwake: Extinction is never the answer. Ecosystems can radically change from the extinction of a species. Best to let natural selection decide what lives and what dies._

 _DannyPhantom619: Shirou and Laxus's friendship was something we really wanted to give focus to in the last chapter. Maybe Rulebreaker would be a bit too useful. As you will see in the future, there will be limitations put on it._

 _PasiveNox: Thanks!_

 _ZooFan: Well, you were right about this chapter not coming out for a long time, that's for sure. Glad to see that I captured your expectations for Shirou and Laxus's relationship. You can count of the Fantasia Arc hit a lot more emotional strings in this iteration, that's for sure. Shirou learning Take-Over Magic is planned, as previously seen, but it's not going to show up for a while._

 _tl34lt12: Hey, what are friends for, right? Yeah, after that first display at the R-System, anyone who doubts Shirou's power in this life clearly has not read Ray's original story._

 _KhanhM: Wow... rude. Apparently, someone can't detect snark and deadpan. I know you're not going to see this, but let's all have a moment of silence for the sad sack that is missing out of what could be a really great story._

 _daizuke: Who won't in that situation?_

 _s_ _uperpierce: Thank you for the kind words._

 _ultima-owner: Well, I don't exactly know Devil May Cry very well, so there's not much I can say about that. "Swords as projectile weapons" was meant to be a reference to UBW Abridged by Project Mouthwash._

 _EternalKing: Keep in mind that this is an objectively healthier Shirou who places himself as a family man above all else. Being able to have normal human interactions wouldn't be too far out of the realm of possibility for him in this life. Nice to know that everything else apart of Shirou's characterization was pretty well done. The Family Contract was something I adopted from Juushinki Pandora and was always presented as I do in this story. Your concerns have been heard and the Family Contract will not be brought up as often as it has in the last few chapters. For example, this chapter will have no mention of it whatsoever, as you will soon see._

 _Greyjedi449t: Sorry to keep you waiting!_

 _ALTER-BOT: Something along those lines. Though, Shirou's brand of Take-Over might be a bit more than what you're expecting._

 _The Apex Predator 01: Thank you!_

 _Amused Archer: I can neither confirm nor deny that prediction._

 _logron: Well, yeah, of course he is. He's mentally healthy here. Did you not read the original story?_

 _ICanRememberThis: A close prediction, but I can neither confirm nor deny how close of a prediction._

 _Lazymanjones96: Sorry to keep you waiting!_

 _Meliodas (Guest): Um, because this was what he was capable of in Ray's original story? Did you not read it? They guy blew up a R-System with a single spear. Don't attack an author for keeping things within the pre-established canon._

 _Guest (1): Will do! Sorry this took so long._

 _Neema Amiry: Glad you liked it._

 _MeMeMegumi (Guest): Yeah, sorry about that. Fight scenes were never my strong suit. It also doesn't help that I like fast paced fights and the fact that text as a medium slows them down with the need for extensive detail. I'll try to improve on that in the future._

 _anon123 (Guest): Wow, you did not make this easy. I will say that this story will be going for a tone closer to that of the original Fairy Tail, fairly serious but plenty of goofy moments, but not Carnival Phantasm levels of goofy._

 _Guest (2): Thank you!_

 _SoulDeprived: No, thank you for reading!_

 _ehbon172: Wow, this one is going to take a while. Yeah, the transition form Earth to Earthland spells a lot of opportunity for Shirou, with a more forgiving internal magic system, a world wide use of magic as a tool, and an abundance of magical items for Shirou to copy just from walking through a marketplace. There are big plans for Shirou's brand of Take-Over that will not be revealed now. If you want an idea of what's planned, I suggest taking a look ad Fate/Kaleid Prisma Illya. Yes, I know that show has magical girl lolis kissing, but look past that and there is a lot of great stuff, even in the early seasons. Well, like in canon, a lot of Shirou's abilities are tied to his Reality Marble, so teaching his magic to someone without that basic prerequisite would be pretty much impossible. As you'll see in this chapter, Shirou's training regiment for the kids is more along the lines of applying their personal magics in real world scenarios rather than teaching them his own brand of magic._

 _ParadoxReader (Guest): Glad you like the story so far. At this point in time, there are no plans for other Nasuverse characters to become permanent residences of Earthland. However, that is not to say that no other Nasuverse characters will be showing up at all. I'll leave it to you to figure out how that would be possible._

 **And that's all of them. Now, let's get this disclaimer out of the way so you can all actually start reading the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: Neither I nor Ray O'Neill own Fate/Stay Night or Fairy Tail, or any of the series' respective characters, and we make no money from this**

* * *

Chapter 4: In Training

At the Fairy Tail Guildhall, the sound of iron clashing against iron could be heard coming from behind the building. Most would find such an occurrence strange, to say the least. After all, Fairy Tail is a Magic Guild. The sound of clashing blades was something one would expect to find from a knights training ground or the like. However, for Fairy Tail, this had become the norm over the last couple of weeks.

Since joining the guild and bringing along with him several other young recruits, Shirou Strauss had taken in upon himself to help them learn and develop into capable mages in their respective fields. Whenever he was at the guildhall and not cooking, the eldest Strauss would oversee and guide the youngest members of the guild in their training, providing tips on the very basics of magic theory and beginner level tools to help them get started. At the moment, he was assisting Erza in her swordsmanship training, clashing blades with her in a practice spar.

After saving up a little extra money from working behind the bar and going on the weekly magic job, Shirou invested a bit to help the young mages get started. In the case of Erza, this meant purchasing her first set of armor and a single short sword. The sword was short enough that it could be worn at her hip and just barely hang over the ground. In addition to sword practice, the weapon was also used for magic practice, giving Erza something to Requip in and out of her personal pocket dimension. Truly, these were essentials for the young girl to learn and develop her style of magic.

In the center of the rear courtyard, Erza furiously attacked Shirou with a flurry of slashes. Both were in full combat gear, with Erza wearing her new breastplate and Shirou in his usual mission gear. With her sword gripped tightly in both hands, she swung quickly and precisely, making every single move count. To the outside observer, it looked as though she was just attacking wildly, but a trained swordsman could easily tell that those strikes were no random. Following the older mage's instructions, Erza aimed for any gaps in her opponent's guard. Places where his own swords would not interfere with her strikes; areas where his swords can easily be knocked away from; sections where at least one sword was out of range to defend in; these were all weak points that Erza had been trained to look for and target.

However, little did Erza know that such a methodology would have no effect on her current opponent. Unfortunately for her, Shirou's style of swordsmanship was completely original and totally unconventional to a suicidal degree. His style's strength drew from his opponent's skills, exploiting their battle instinct to use it against them. By purposefully leaving opening in his guard, Shirou was able to bait opponents into attacking him and make it easier for him to predict their movements. Honestly, Shirou felt a bit guilty for luring Erza into a no-win situation like this, but this was training after all. If she was going to succeed in a real fight, she needed to know how to deal with most opponents, and Shirou was not most opponents. Of course, if he wanted to sell the idea that she was ever going to land a hit on him, he needed to include safety precautions to make it look like they would get hurt without them. Thus, Shirou purposefully dulled the edges of Kanshou and Bakuya and Projected a modified sheath for Erza's sword covered the edge but didn't add too much weight.

Of to the side, the rest of the kids in the guild watched with wide eyes and bated breath as the two swordsman crossed blades. While none of them knew the first thing about swordsmanship, they could tell just how intense the spar was just from how quickly the steel was swinging. With each strike Erza attempted, Shirou deflected it with apparent ease. It seemed as if the older mage was completely untouchable, a testament to his skills with his twin swords.

As the two of them crossed swords, Shirou couldn't help but notice how quickly Erza was progressing in her swordsmanship. After only picking up a real sword fairly recently, she had quickly established the basics of her own style. Erza had accomplished in a mere matter of weeks what took Shirou several years of practice and dedication. The redhead was genuine prodigy with a blade and Shirou couldn't be happier for her. These skills would serve her well in the future.

After another minute of clashing blades, Shirou took it upon himself to end the spar so he could give a little bit of focus to the other kids' training. With practiced precision, he caught Erza's sword with the flat edges of his own in a sort of pincer grip. Gauging his own strength as to not hurt the girl, Shirou then pushed back, throwing the redhead away from him a good couple of feet. Not one to give up so easily, Erza immediately tried to charge in again for another attack, only to stop when Shirou raised a hand to halt her advance.

"I think that's enough for now. We don't want the others to feel left out now, do we?" Shirou instructed, "Your swordsmanship has improved greatly."

"I still haven't been able to land a hit on you," Erza grumbled.

"You'll get there eventually," Shirou encouraged with a small chuckle, petting the young girl's head.

With Erza's sword practice done for the time being, Shirou turned to the rest of the children sitting on the sidelines.

"Alright everyone, that wraps up Erza's specialized training session," the eldest mage called out, "Whose next on the schedule?"

"I'm pretty sure we agreed to watch Sorano's first summon!" Jellal replied, raising his hand like a student in a classroom.

"That's right!" Shirou confirmed, "So, Sorano, you ready to summon your first Celestial Spirit? You have that key I gave you, right?"

"Have it right here," Sorano said proudly, holding up her only Silver Celestial Spirit Key.

In addition to the starter set of armor and weapons Shirou bought for Erza, he also went out of his way to purchase for Sorano a Celestial Spirit Key to help her get started. It was by no means a very powerful key, just a basic Canis Minor Key, the weakest and easiest to maintain Celestial Spirit there was. In all likelihood, the Spirit summoned by the key wasn't going to be of any help on jobs, but it would at least give Sorano some practice in summoning and maintaining contracts.

"Why are we even doing this?" Natsu complained, "Can't we just go all out on each other in a brawl for training?"

"Half of us here have only just started to learn magic, Flame Brain," Gray sighed in exasperation, "You really want to fight against a bunch of kids that don't know how to defend themselves?"

"Mira and Erza fight all the time when Shirou isn't looking," Natsu grumbled.

"Erza unlocked her magical abilities early on and is genuine prodigy," Gray argued back, "Besides, all those fights were mostly fist fights. You can't exactly call that Magic Training. Try thinking with your head instead of your fists for once."

"What did you say, Ice Queen?!" the Dragonslayer suddenly yelled.

"Now now, Natsu, don't go picking a fight now," Lisanna reprimanded, "Sorano is about to summon her first Celestial Spirit. Aren't you at least a little curious about how it works?"

"I guess," Natsu huffed, "Still would have preferred to have a good fight to train."

"Alright, quiet down now, everyone," Shirou ordered, "Sorano is about to perform her first summon, so let her concentrate."

As soon as every had gone silent, Shirou nodded to the budding Celestial Mage, signaling her to begin. Taking a deep breath, Sorano held out her single, silver Gate Key in front of her as if inserting it into a locked door. With a mighty and determined bellow, she recited the summoning incantation.

"I call upon thee in the world of the Celestial Spirits!" Sorano chanted, "I becon you to my side at once! Pass through the gate! Open, Gate of Canis Minor! Come, Nikora!"

As soon as she uttered the words, a large, blue magic circle appeared in the air hovering just at the tip of the Gate Key. From the magic circle, multiple streams of blue light flew out light shooting stars before collecting into a small ball of light. When the light faded, in its place stood the newly summoned Celestial Spirit.

The spirit itself was rather small, barely the size of Shirou head. Despite being a spirit representing the constellation Canis Minor, it resembled less like a dog and more like a snowman with padded paws for hands and feet, a small white tail, and a blood red nose that resembled a carrot. Its body was a tint of light blue and had some red marks under its eyes that vaguely reminded Shirou of Celtic runes. Actually, everything about the spirit reminded Shirou of someone else, but he couldn't quite place who.

"I did it!" Sorano cheered with glee at her success.

"Aw, he's so adorable," Lisanna cooed, clutching her heart.

"… That's it?" all of the younger boys present deadpanned.

"Well, it is the weakest species of Celestial Sprit in existence," Shirou explained, having picked up a few things during his travels as a mercenary, "Because of how little magic energy it takes to summon them, lots of mages have them as pets, even giving them nicknames. Speaking of which, Sorano, you still need to finalize the contract and decide on a nickname for this little guy."

Doing as she was instructed, the young Celestial Mage got straight to work on finalizing her contract with her new Celestial Spirit. Pulled out a notepad and pencil, she asked the small Nikora a series of yes-or-no questions regarding the days of the week in which the spirit was available for summoning. With each answer, she made a note as to not forget and breach the contract they were making.

As Sorano finalized her contract with the small Celestial Spirit, Shirou couldn't help but muse to himself about how the Celestial Spirit System worked. In the research he did on Celetial Spirits after buying Sorano her first key, he found that there were some unique parallels between it and the Servant System from his pervious life. A quick analysis of the key revealed in contained a fragment of the Celestial Spirit whose gate it open, acting as a sort of catalyst. It made Shirou wonder if that system could be exploited somehow, like creating multiple keys for the same spirit or summoning other individuals.

While Shirou pondered this, the rest of the children looked on with the boys making no effort to hide how boring they found the process.

"Man, this boring," Wally sighed.

"I know, right? Who would have thought that making a contract could be so dull?" Simon agreed.

"Seriously. I could fall asleep from boredom just watching this," Macbeth joked.

"Personally, I find it quite intriguing," Jellal mused, "Such a pact is necessary to maintain the trust between spirit and mage, with the spirit entrusting the mage to abide by their terms and respect their rights. Somehow, it is servitude with genuine freedom."

"Nerd!" Erik cracked through a smirk.

"What are all of you talking about?" a new girl said as she approached the group.

Turning around, the children could see that the girl was about their age. She had short, shoulder length, purple hair, green eyes, and a similarly green colored dress and hair ribbon. In her hands was a tray with several glasses of juice. The girl's name was Kinana, Fairy Tail's newest waitress. Sometime after Shirou and the R-System children arrived at the guild, Shirou informed Master Makarov about the strange feeling he got from Erik's pet snake, whom the boy named Cubellios under the assumption it was a male. After inspecting the pet for himself, the old man discovered that the snake was cursed, and the reptilian body was not its original form. While it took some effort, the Guild Master was able to lift the curse, returning the snake to its true form, the young girl named Kinana.

Needless to say, Erik was quite shocked to learn that his pet was actually a young girl his age, especially such a cute and friendly one. While he was glad to finally be able to hear his friend's voice, he couldn't help but feel awkward by the fact he had assumed the girl to be a boy while she was a snake. As new to the outside world as he was, he still had enough sense to know that saying a girl looked like a boy was a massive insult to their feminine pride. Thankfully, Kinana herself didn't seem to care to much about that misunderstanding and actually hit it off with the boy rather quickly. In fact, she instantly recognized Erik as the boy who had taken care of her during her time as a snake, even if the rest of her memories were a bit foggy.

Seeing as they couldn't just leave her by herself and Kinana seemed to be uninterested in learning magic for the time being, Master Makarov decided to offer her a deal. She would work as a regular waitress in the Fairy Tail Guildhall in exchange for room and board under the guild's protection. The young girl instantly jumped at the chance, partly because she had no better option and partly because she didn't want to part with Erik so quickly.

Her first few weeks as a waitress were a bit rough, occasionally tripping over herself and sending food to the wrong tables. However, with some pointers from Shirou, she eventually got the hang of being a waitress and was soon running around the guildhall like she owned the place. While working as a waitress, she made quick friends with nearly everyone in the guild. At the same time, she took special care to check on Erik whenever she got the chance, leaving the two of them to be mercilessly teased by the rest of the guild. Even with all the teasing, Kinana didn't seem to care, instead taking it in stride and continuing the work she had grown to enjoy so much.

"Hey, Kinana," Erik greeted, "We're just watching Sorano make her first contract with a Celestial Spriit."

"The Nikora Silver Key, right? The one Shirou-san bought for her a while back?" Kinana asked for conformation.

"That's right," Sorano cried cheerfully as she approached the rest of the kids, her newly contracted Celestial Spirit laying on top of her head, "Pretty cute, isn't he?"

"He's adorable!" Lisanna beamed.

"He's no kitty, but even I won't deny this puppy is a cutie!" Millianna agreed.

"So, Sorano, did you decide on a nickname for him?" Shirou asked as he joined the rest of the group.

"Yup!" Sorano beamed, "I'm calling him Cu-chan!"

Upon hearing the name that Sorano gave to the Celestial Spirit of Canis Minor, Shirou could feel his right eye twitch at the absurdity of the situation. Here he was, reincarnated in another world with all his memories and skills mostly intact with a new name and a new identity. Yet somehow, someway, fate decided to toy with him and give him ridiculous stand-ins for people he knew in he previous life, including the people he didn't necessarily get along the best with.

'Well, it wouldn't be the strangest thing that's happened to me, oddly enough,' Shirou thought to himself.

"Are you sure he's really okay with a name like that?" Natsu asked with mild concern, "Seems kind of demeaning, don't you think?"

"Why wouldn't he be okay with it?" Sorano inquired in reply, "It's not like we can understand what he's saying and hear what his real name is. We need something to call him by."

The newly dubbed Cu-chan made a few mumbling and humming sounds while making various gestures with his paws, as if trying to speak.

"Oh man! That's awesome, Cu-chan!" Natsu cheered, giving the snowman-like creature a thumbs up, "Talk about convenient!"

"You can understand him?!" Sorano cried in complete shock.

"Why won't I be able to understand him?" the Dragonslayer asked in reply as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

'Well, this is getting weird,' Shirou thought to himself as he watched the exchange.

"So, what is this about something being convenient?" Shirou asked, trying to steer the conversation away from the fact that Natsu could understand the normally incomprehensible Celestial Spirit.

"Huh? Oh yeah! Cu-chan was just saying that the nickname really fits," Natsu explained with a massive grin on his face, "His real name is Cu Arianrhod, so the new nickname actually works out well for him."

'Cu Arianrhod, huh?' Shirou thought to himself, his eye twitching even more, 'In certain Celtic tongues, that literally means Hound of Arianrhod, a Celtic goddess of the moon and stars.'

"Hey Shirou-nii, are you okay?" Elfman asked in concern as he tugged on his older brother's pants leg.

Seeing as his irritated and dumbfounded reactions were starting to become noticeable to the rest of the group, Shirou saw it best to just move past the issues and pretend they didn't happen. No sense in worry over something as insignificant as a couple of coincidental names, color schemes, and a little boy's apparent ability to fluently understand the language of a normally incomprehensible spirit from another plain of existence. Surely those thoughts were nothing but a waste of time and effort. It wasn't like some outside force was pushing this strange set of circumstances on him just to mess with him.

Even as he told himself this, Shirou could still feel his eye twitching. Actually, the twitching seemed to be getting even more intense with every second. In addition, he could feel his hands begin to tremble with frustration as he attempts to forget only made the absurdity all the more noticeable. What he needed was some way to occupy his mind and steer his train of thought away from the absurdity.

From his not twitching left eye, the reincarnated mage noticed the many bored looks across the faces of the kids, specifically the boys where were not overly interested in the finer details behind certain branches of magic. Remembering the earlier complaints about the lack of any physical training from the likes of Natsu and Gray, Shirou decided it was about time to start that portion of the training session. He knew just the exercise for the occasion, one that would keep the kids on their toes and Shirou too focused to worry about his increasingly strange circumstances.

"All right everyone, gather around!" Shirou called out, "It time to start with the practical portion of today's training!"

Almost immediately, all the children got off their butts and surrounded Shirou, awaiting his instructions.

"So, what will we be doing now, Shirou-nii?" Mira asked with an eager grin on her face.

"We will now work on your reflexes and agility," Shirou explained, "The goal of this exercise will be for all of you to analysis the situation at hand and react according to avoid being hit. Out in the real world, you will face many dangers, especially if you chose to take on more dangerous jobs. You must be able to recognize that danger and act to avoid it. Which is why, for the purpose of this exercise, you will be dodging a continuous volley of these."

Holding out his hand, Shirou activated his magic and projected a particular sword he was all too familiar with. While it was nowhere near as sharp or heavy as any other blade he had in his counterfeit arsenal, it had a reputation for being just as deadly, if not deadlier, when wielded by the proper individual. That sword was the Tora-Shina, a rather mundane and nonlethal looking bamboo sword with no real edge and a tiger strap attached to the guard.

"Naturally, I will be throwing nonlethal weapons at you during the course of training," Shirou continued, patting the blade in his hand, "However, just because the weapon is nonlethal does not make it any less dangerous."

"Please, how dangerous can a wooden sword be?" Natsu huffed, clearly unconvinced by the unassuming Projection.

A second later, the sound of a tiger roaring could be all the way up to the guildhall from where the group had gathered for training. In the blink of an eye, Shirou had swatted Natsu over the head with the head with the Tora-Shinai, creating a cracking sound akin to a tiger's roar and leaving a massive welt on the Dragonslayer's head. The unfortunate victim of the allegedly cursed sword's fury was left crouching on the ground, gripping his head in hopes of lessening the pain.

"First, the sword is made from bamboo, not wood. Second, never underestimate an opponent or their equipment. That is the whole point of this exercise, for you all to learn to recognize danger and avoid it," Shirou lectured, "Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir," Natsu whimpered as he stood up straight with tears in his eyes.

"Seriously? You're going to cry over that?" Gray huffed.

This comment earned the Ice-Maker Mage his own welt on the head curtesy of the Tora-Shinai.

"No more interruptions until we actually start the exercise!" Shirou ordered.

"Yes sir," Gray whimpered in a similar manner to Natsu.

"The rules are simple," Shirou instructed, "You are to use whatever means possible to avoid being hit by my attacks. Any skills you may possess can and should be used to help you avoid getting hit directly. This includes dodging, deflecting, and destroying the oncoming blades. However, you are not to directly attack me to get me to stop firing the swords. The purpose of the exercise is to use your own skills and avoid oncoming attacks, not preventing them. You are also not allowed to use someone else to gain an advantage or actively interfere with others. I don't want to see anyone of you throwing anyone else on to the train tracks. If you take a direct hit from a sword, you are out. The goal is to last as long as possible as the attacks become more rapid. Any questions?"

"Are spectators allowed?" an older voice called out from behind the group of children.

Looking above and past the children under his tutelage, Shirou saw Laxus casually approach the lesson with a slight smirk on his face, as if waiting for something funny to happen.

"Laxus? What are you doing here?" Shirou asked his fellow teen.

"I heard the sound of a tiger roaring from your little lesson so I decided to check out what caused it," the lightning mage shrugged, "Figure someone was going to get maimed, but I didn't think you would be throwing an endless supply of bamboo swords at a bunch of brats. Thought it would be funny to watch."

"You hear that, kids? Laxus doesn't think you have what it takes to dodge my attacks," Shirou goaded, "Are you going to take that from him?"

The response was a massive cry of outrage, especially from the more short-tempered of the group like Mira and Natsu. None of them were going to accept being looked down upon by a jerk like Laxus. With new found resolve fueled by anger and a desire to prove the lightning mage wrong, the children quickly spread themselves across the courtyard while Shirou, Laxus, Kinana, and Cu-chan all stood higher up on the hill leading to the guildhall.

With everyone in place, Shirou raised his right hand above his head and called upon the record stored within his Reality Marble. One by one, dozens of Tora-Shinais appeared in the air, suspended over their counterfeiter's shoulders. Each sword was pointed in the general direction of the children but tilted ever so slightly as to make their flight paths more unpredictable. On his command, the bamboo swords went flying. As the multitude of Tora-Shinais rushed towards the children, each mage-in-training immediately took action to avoid getting hit and to stay in the fight for as long as possible.

Natsu took a rather direct approach towards dealing with the swords, spitting and throwing flames wherever and whenever a sword happened to be coming his way. Using his heightened, dragon-like senses to his advantage, the young Salamander used everything he could to try and predict the movement of the swords. He looked at where the swords came from to predict their flight path. He listened to the wind as the blades cut through the air. He smelled for the scent of bamboo as it got stronger when a Tora-Shinai came close. All his senses gave Natsu an edge in battlefield awareness. With such detailed knowledge of his surroundings, Natsu wasted no time burning away the swords aimed for him.

Gray's tactic for dealing with the swords was a bit more on the creative side compared to Natsu's. With his versatile Ice-Make Magic, he could have created any number of methods to defend against the onslaught of weapons. However, proper Maker Magic required the use of two hands and a lot of focus, so Gray knew he had to create something that was easy to make and not require him to reproduce too often. Thus, he couldn't emulate Shirou's method of reproducing multiple swords to parry the attacks as they came and shattered. Instead, Gray made a recreation of some of the many non-sword related weapons Shirou had shared with them, an array of arm mounted shields. One of the defensive tactics Shirou had shared in the past was the use of weak Projections for quick defense, creating flawed but solid copies of shields to defend against single attacks and quickly counterattack. Gray's strategy was a modified version of that plan, in which he created multiple ice shields of low quality that bought him enough time to make more shields to replace the destroyed ones.

Each of the younger Strauss siblings had their own methods for dealing with the swords that their eldest brother was throwing at them. For Mirajane, her method involved transforming her arm into that of a demon's and firing bolts of black magic to intercept the oncoming weapons. Elfman's strategy was similar to that of his sister's but relied more on brute strength, using the defensive bulk of Beast Arm: Iron Bull to block the attacks. Lisanna's strategy was by the most distinct of the three, focusing on a more elegant form of defense. Using the enhanced senses and agility granted to her through her Animal Soul: Cat, she was able to detect and avoid all the swords that Shirou was throwing at them, even managing to knock at least a few of them off course with her claws.

Everyone else was handling themselves decently enough. Thanks to her relentless sword training with Shirou, Erza was more than capable of parrying the multitude of blades with her own single blade. Sho and Cana gave their cards homing properties as to shoot down the Tora-Shinais long before the got too close. Wally was able to disassemble his body into a swarm of cubes, allowing him to create openings in his own body in which the swords passed harmlessly through him. Richard liquified the earth around him, creating walls of quicksand that stopped the flying weapons in their tracks. Thanks to his Reflector Magic, Macbeth was more than capable of redirecting Shirou's attacks away from him. Erik was able to fire off several bolts of nonlethal poison from his fingertips to knock the incoming swords off course. Sawyer and Jellal were easily able to dodge thanks to the speed granted to their respective magics, Slow Magic and Heavenly Body Magic: Meteor. The only members of the group really struggling were Millianna, Simon, and Sorano, mostly because their specific brands of magic had no real methods for dealing with the onslaught they faced. Even with this major handicap, they still managed to stay in the game.

"Not doing half bad, huh Laxus?" Shirou mused.

"For kids, I guess," the lightning mage shrugged, "I still don't see any of them making S-Class any time soon."

"True, but they surely have potential," Shirou pointed out, "Especially Mira and Erza. I can see the two of them making S-Class within a few years."

"Serious? Just the girls?" Laxus questioned, "You can't honestly tell me that those little girls will outpace some of the guys. I may think he's a brat, but I'd put money on Natsu getting farther than everyone else down there, give or take a couple decades."

"Let's just say I've seen how dangerous women can be," the former mercenary said cryptically.

"What, did you get around a lot during your time as a freelancer?" Laxus inquired.

As soon as Laxus posed the question, Mirajane, Lisanna, Erza, and Sorano all flinched. Immediately afterwards, four tiger roars could be heard, signaling that four mages were out of the exercise. At the same time, the memory of a certain Ba-dump Date Super Plan gone horribly wrong flashed in Shirou's mind.

"I really don't want to talk about it…," Shirou stuttered, visibly shivering.

That response from Shirou really put Laxus on edge. This is the mage that managed to accidentally level an acre of forest when trying to drive off a pack of Gorians yet somehow, he had an experience with a woman so bad that it leaves him quaking in his boots. Just how dangerous could this woman have been to leave that much of an impression on someone as powerful and skilled as Shirou?

Of course, what Laxus didn't know was it wasn't a woman that left a mental scar on Shirou, but four women who were all his superiors in the ways of magic.

"So," Laxus trailed, trying to find some way to move the topic away from Shirou's woman problems, "Think it might be time to increase the firing rate?"

"Yeah… good call," Shirou nodded, turning his attention back to the training exercise.

Turning the metaphorical dial up a notch, Shirou accelerated the firing rate of his Sword Barrel from about twenty swords per second to thirty swords per second. Down on the field, the children continued to work tirelessly to avoid getting hit. With the faster rate of fire, some of the kids were visibly starting to struggle more to keep up with the onslaught of Tora-Shinais. With so many weapons coming at them at once, it was a miracle that no one had been hit by a sword yet. However, that did not mean that no one got hit at all.

Even though Jellal's Meteor spell gave him incredibly fast flight comparable to that of a meteor entering a planet's gravitational field, it did not necessarily mean he had the reflexes and awareness of his surroundings needed to properly operate at such speeds. Those were skills he needed to develop with practice. Unfortunately, this meant that while he was focused on avoiding the accelerating onslaught of bamboo swords, he had failed to notice that he had put himself on a collision course with a certain Salamander.

What followed next was a series of unfortunate and painful events. After getting knocked aside by Jellal, Natsu crashed into Gray, resulting in a brawl between the fire and ice mages. The brawl disappeared into a dust cloud that sucked in those unfortunate enough to get too close, leading the rest of the children to inevitably take part. The only children not to get involved in the fight were Sorano, Millianna, and Lisanna, whom all had the brains to know that getting into a fight like that was not going to end well. Miraculously, even while fighting with each other, no one in the brawl was hit with any of Shirou's swords.

Seeing as training had quickly devolved into a pointless fight, Shirou ceased his onslaught of Tora-Shinais to assess the situation.

"Really?! Now is not the time for you all to be fighting like this!" Shirou yelled as he dispelled the remaining swords.

"Well, should have seen this coming," Laxus sighed, not caring too much for how the training exercise turned out.

"They wouldn't be them if they break into a fight like this," Kinana chimed, happily watching her friends be themselves.

"I have to put a stop to this!" Shirou cried as he sprinted down the hill towards the dust cloud.

"Your funeral, buddy," Laxus waved as he watched his friend walk into hell.

Running towards the brawling children, Shirou yelled at them to stop their fighting. However, before he could get close enough to physically break them up, he felt something grip him around his ankles. Looking down, he saw he had stepped in some liquified earth, curtesy of Richard. While his two lifetimes worth of dedicated practice and training gave him combat prowess comparable to that of Heroic Spirit EMIYA during his lifetime, Shirou himself lacked the magically induced Rank B Eye of the Mind (True) Skill granted to the Heroic Spirit when summoned in the Archer Class.

Looking up from his feet, Shirou was meet with the sight of one the most bizarre attacks he's seen in either of his lifetimes. Rushing towards his face from the dust cloud was an ice fist coated in poisonous flames. While the attack itself was most likely a case of stray attacks hitting bystanders, the fact that it was made of conflicting forms of magic threw the sword mage for a loop.

Regardless of how the attack was made, the result was the same. Shirou was struck in the face by the poisonous flaming ice fist, dislodged from the liquid earth, and sent hurtling towards the Fairy Tail Guild Hall at the top of the hill. As he was sent flying, a single phrase from his mouth could be heard across all of Magnolia.

"WHY?!"

"Yesh, for a guy that can level forests and towers with relative ease, he sure can fly far," Laxus mused as Shirou crashed into the guild hall.

* * *

After the disaster that was the last training session, all the kids plus Shirou were stuck in the guild hall infirmary. Shirou had gotten off pretty easy, having only a single blow to the head as a result of him trying to stop the fighting, and that was after he crashed through the back wall of the guild hall. The rest of the boys were not so lucky as all of them were resting in beds with a considerable number of bandages and half of them with at least one broken limb. Among the injured, there was Natsu with freezer burn, Gray with fire burns, Erik with paralysis from his own poison, and Jellal with several scrapes from moving across the ground at the speed of a meteor. The only people in the infirmary not injured were the girls, including Erza and Mira who miraculously got out of the brawl unscathed.

"And that's the last of them," a pink haired old woman named Porlyusica said as she tied up the last of the children's bandages, "I've done all that I can. You should all be back to normal within a week if you don't strain yourselves."

"Thank you, Porlyusica-san," Shirou said with a bow, "I am truly grateful that you've gone out of your way to treat everyone here."

"Don't thank me. I'm just doing my job," the guild's medicinal advisor replied, "Truth be told, I can't stand humans. Such a self-destructive race."

'That sounds awfully familiar,' Shirou mused to himself.

"I take it you were the one responsible for this whole mess, correct?" the nurse asked, "The most recent of lost children Makarov has taken in."

"…yes?" Shirou replied unsurely, easily detecting discontent.

"Do me a favor and try to teach these children some discipline before your next training session," Porlyusica requested as she left the infirmary, "I'd rather not have this be a reoccurring problem."

"Yes ma'am," Shirou said with another bow.

As soon as Porlyusica had left the room, Shirou collapsed in a nearby chair, quickly gaining the attention of the girls in the room.

"Are you okay, Shirou-nii?" Lisanna asked in concern, gripping her brother's arm.

"I'm fine, Lisanna," Shirou whispered, petting her head, "Just tired. I did not expect that training exercise to end up like that."

"Things did get pretty out of hand towards the end there," Millianna mused.

"Well, boys will be boys," Sorano shrugged.

"Shirou?" Erza asked, approaching the collapsed older boy.

"What is it, Erza?" Shirou asked in turn.

"Porlyusica-san said everyone else needed to be disciplined before the next training session. I think I can do the job for you," the redhead declared.

"What makes you think that?" Mirajane asked suspiciously.

"Wielding a sword requires an intensive amount of personal discipline and focus," Erza explained, "I am the only person besides Shirou that understands this. He'll be busy with everything else he does around the guild, so I can make sure everyone behaves in his stead."

"I guess that makes sense," Mira admitted with a sour look on her face.

"If you really want to have a go at it, I won't stop you, Erza," Shirou replied, too tired to really argue, "I'll be counting on you."

"Don't worry, Shirou! I won't let you down!" Erza saluted, pounding her fist on her breastplate where her heart would be.

Smiling at the redhead's enthusiasm, Shirou couldn't help but notice the stares of ill intent he was getting from the injured boys.

'Why?' Shirou whined in his head as he slumped in his chair.

* * *

 **Special End Card Segment: Animan Temple**

 **"Welcome back, everyone, to the Animan Temple," a man in a skull mask greeted, "I'm cohost Ray O'Neill, along with assistants Student Number 1 and Priestess Number 1."**

 **"It's been a while since we've done this, hasn't it?" Student Number 1, Illyasivel von Einzbern mused.**

 **"Master has been pretty busy lately, so he hasn't been able to develop the fabric of this reality recently," Priestess Number 1, Aisa Himegami explained.**

 **"Where are Animan and Taiga for that matter?" Ray asked, confused by the absence of his partner, "This is his end card segment, he should be here for it."**

 **"Guys, I think we have a problem!" a panicked voice called out from another part of the temple.**

 **Entering the dojo portion of the temple was Animan von Elysium X, his trusty sword Mugen dragging behind him. He appeared to be pretty out of breath and clearly scared. For some reason, he had a little doll on top of his head.**

 **"There you are! Where's Shishou?" Illya asked impatiently.**

 **"Such a rude student! Can't you see?! I'm right here!" the doll cried, which upon closer inspection looked just like Taiga.**

 **"What happened?!" Ray yelled, utterly confused as to why Taiga was suddenly the size of a doll.**

 **"Well, Taiga and I were having our usual spar when I accidently hit her with a Mugen Art," Animan explained, "I was trying to use Mugen Purge to paralyze her, but I accidentally used Mugen Chibi and turned her into this."**

 **"You shouldn't have been using Mugen Arts in the first place!" Taiga screamed as she smacked Animan's head with her equally small Tora-Shinai.**

 **"OW!" the owner of the temple cried.**

 **"Well, on the bright side you are much more adorable like this, Shishou," Illya mused, "Now your the Palmtop Tiger of Fuyuki."**

 **"Shaddup! shaddup! shaddup! Go bald! Go bald! Go bald! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!" Tiaga yelled as she furiously started plucking out Animan's hair.**

 **"Hey! Why are you attacking me!" Animan whined.**

 **"She got turned into a Blank-tan version of herself," Himegami whispered to herself in despair, "Even Taiga is more of a heroine than I am."**

 **"We'll see you all next time," Ray insisted, addressing the audience, "Hopefully, we'll get this all sorted out by then."**

 **"Go bald! Idiot! Go bald! Idiot!" Taiga continued to chant as she continued to pluck out Animan's hair.**


	5. Happy Egg

**Hey everybody! Did you miss me? Here we are again with another chapter of Swords of a Brother Unlimited. This one is going to be special, being the first chapter in which we adapt a canon event and see how the inclusion of Shirou as an older brother to the Strausses changes things (in all honesty, not much, but its an early event). For now let's get some reviews responded to.**

 _PheonixQueen15: Sorry to say this, but that's not coming for a long time. I'd estimate about a year with how often update any given story._

 _tl34lt12: Yeah, Shirou's life/route in the Nasuverse is a sort of amalgamation multiple routes, and left somewhat ambiguous intentionally. What we can confirm is that Shriou experienced something akin to primarily a mix of Fate and UBW with elements of HF and a few comedic incidences from HA and CF. Shirou is being used as the butt of a joke in this case. Of course he was going to say his iconic "Why!?". Expect to see a lot of that whenever he's the victim of slapstick._

 _bluefish1945: Yeah, given Shirou's personality, he's not likely to have a one-night-stand during his mercenary days. Sex isn't going to fill that kind of void for him._

 _Dragon lord Syed 101: You know your family life is healthy if you can all laugh at accidents like that._

 _apostlelord: Will do... eventually._

 _daizuke: I cannot tell what you are saying. Sorry._

 _ZooFan: I can't help it! It's just so fun to mess with Shirou! Eh, Erza was going to start pounding discipline in all of them eventually, the training incident just gave her incentive._

 _ENDDRAGON369: The world may never know. I chose to believe its because he's actually a demon. The logic behind that theory? How bold of you to assume there was logic involved._

 _Ztassassin555: Well, the thing about Noble Phantasms is that a lot of the more powerful ones can level a city. Not something you want to use too regularly when your guild already has a reputation of causing massive amounts of collateral damage. Rule Breaker is especially problematic since about 90% of all the problems in Fairy Tail that can't be solved with brute force can be solved under the assumption that it can break pretty much all manner of curses, which is just too much of a cope out. While Fairy Tail is loose with its magic, it's only really loose in that there's a form of magic for everything. No one is going to have the exact form of magic needed to solve any given problem. The issue with Shirou is the fact that UBW is pretty much that, a grab bag of Noble Phantasms with effects that can solve pretty much any problem, so limitations on his use on Noble Phantasms is needed for story reasons. There is also the in-story reason of the Noble Phantasms being foreign to Earthland, originating from myths and legends that do not exist in that world. Using them too often would arouse suspicion._

 _DannyPhantom619: Tis no scorn worse that that of an angry woman._

 _AngelFaux: I can neither confirm nor deny that claim. I will say that the Shirou's style of Take-Over Magic will be something along those lines, but the exact mechanics will not be revealed just yet. As for how strong Servants are in relation Fairy Tail Mages, I'd say the weakest of Servants aside from Angra Mainyu would be as just above the strength of the 10 Wizard Saints, assuming they are properly summoned via a Holy Grail._

 _TeotakuFantasia: Oh, it would look familiar to someone like you._

 _GenieNight08: Okay, rude. Did you not pay attention to anything that happened in this or the original story by Ray O'Neill? Shirou has been raising his siblings singlehandedly ever since they're parents died and has been a very loving older brother who is very much worthy of his siblings love and respect. By the time I took over writing the story, Shirou had been thought dead by Mira, Elfman, and Lisanna for a year, and vice versa. Those strict rules are safety precautions agreed upon by everyone because they fear losing each other again; and the whole thing was Lisanna's idea to begin with. Everyone outside of the Strausses has plenty of reason to like and respect Shirou: he saved more than half the kids from slavery, he's demonstrated strength and maturity that Laxus is unable to find as the only other teen in the guild, and his a genuinely nice guy to everyone by cooking meals and assisting in training. If you think all the Fairy Tail characters are "massively out of character," I think you need to reexamine your interpretation of these characters and take into account the fact that their backstories have changed substantially because of the inclusion of Shirou in all of their lives. I have nothing but respect for Fairy Tail's story and it's characters. If you believe that my intentions were to insult a pair of franchises that I hold so dear to my heart, then allow me to shatter that ridiculous illusion!_

 _Primordial Inscriptor Z-09: Yup. Never underestimate the hairpin trigger that is Fairy Tail children._

 _Neema Amiry: Sorry to keep you waiting._

 _ALTER-BOT: What makes you say that?_

 _ultima-owner: Nightmares sure can be funny when they belong to someone else._

 _Ferdiad: Don't forget, this is the same series were the most powerful demons and dragons have motion sickness as their greatest weakness. Plus, Shirou wasn't hurt too bad. He was just caught off guard._

 _PasiveNox: Thank you._

 _Guest (1): Eh, harems have their own brand of suffering._

 _Guest (2): Oi! Don't go insulting my cohosts!_

 _Old steamer (Guest): Thank you for the antidotes!_

 _hellousoull (Guest): Eh, a loveless life has its own brand of suffering._

 _Kroz Phantomville: You hit the nail on the head, good sir. Sorry, putting reponses at the beginning has been something I've been doing for a long time, and I don't see myself changing that any time soon._

 _Lifelessman: Thank you!_

 _Vendre: Don't worry. We have workarounds and justifications of limiting powers. For Shirou, it will be harem, but who will be included will be saved for later._

 _Guest (3): It certainly will be something interesting to see... in like a year or so._

 **Good news: That was all of the reviews! Bad news: I've been losing motivation in the story but don't want to give it up, so I will be taking a break from this so I don't suffer from burnout. You probably won't see much from this story for a while. Sorry about that.**

 **For the time being, let's just focus on the now and do the disclaimer so you can all get to the actual story.**

 **Disclaimer: Neither I nor Ray O'Neill own Fate/Stay Night or Fairy Tail, or any of the series' respective characters, and we make no money from this**

* * *

Chapter 5: Happy Egg

It was a totally normal day for Shirou at the Fairy Tail Guildhall. As per usual, the eldest Strauss siblings was busy in the kitchen, preparing various meals for his fellow guildmates. It was a particularly busy lunch hour that day, so Shirou had been cooking in the kitchen none stop, leaving Kinana to wait tables. That totally normal lunch hour quickly became unordinary when he heard a rather large ruckus coming from the common room in the guildhall, one of the loudest he had heard in the last month. Putting aside all his cooking utensils and turning off all the appliances, Shirou quickly rushed out of the kitchen to see what was going on.

"What happened out here?!" Shirou cried in a panic, fearing that another guild wide brawl had broken out.

"Nothing at all," Erza and Mirajane beamed with pure and innocent smiles.

Looking around the guildhall, Shirou could see several tables chipped and slightly out of place, with some guild members currently moving tables back into place, but nothing to suggest that the guildhall had suffered from another one of the guild's regular brawls. The only real out of place thing in the guildhall was the giant white and blue egg sitting in the middle of the room on a throw pillow.

Unknown to him was the fact that Erza and Mirajane fight just as often as, if not more so than, Natus and Gray do. The catch is that whenever they are in Shirou's line of sight, they act all sweet and innocent, pretending to be the best of friends. I was a sort of truce the two girls shared, as neither one wanted Shirou to think any less of them for fighting.

"Real classy girls," Cana sighed in exasperation.

"Oh sure, we all get punished when we fight, but she and Mira go completely unnoticed by Shirou?" Gray complained, "You'd think a guy as skilled and powerful as him would have noticed by now."

"Then I'll just to do if for him," Natsu growled, cracking his knuckles, "Just you wait, one of these days, I'm going to give both of them a beating they'll never forget!"

"Can someone please explain what this egg is doing here?" Shirou asked, inspecting the anomaly up close.

"It's a dragon egg Natsu found in the East Forest!" Lisanna explained cheerfully.

"A dragon egg, huh?" Shirou mused as he stroked the top of the egg.

Focusing on the egg, Shirou pushed a bit of magical energy into it to analyze it. Using his Structural Grasping, he could tell that it was a fertilized egg and well into its incubation cycle. The amniotic sack was mostly drained of its fluids and there was a small heartbeat. He also picked up traces of magic both inside and around the egg, but both magic signatures were completely foreign to him.

'It's certainly big enough to be a dragon's egg, and the creature inside is definitely magical in origin, but it doesn't have the scent of a dragon,' Shirou thought as he continued his analysis, 'If anything, it smells of fish and cats. Not only that, the traces of magic around the outside of the egg seem somewhat similar to that of the Kaleidoscope.'

"Say, you're pretty smart, Shirou," Natsu pointed out, "Think you can help me hatch it?"

"While I'm happy you think so highly of me, I think Lisanna would be of much more help. She's the animal expert in our family," Shirou chuckled, "What do you think, Lisanna? You want to help Natsu with this egg?"

"Sure thing!" Lisanna cheered, "I was actually about to ask Natsu if I could help anyway."

"Really?! You want to help?!" Natsu exploded in joy.

"Mhm! I've never tried raising a dragon before!" the young Take-Over Mage beamed, "I bet it will be really fun!"

"I'm not sure 'fun' is the right word for it," Gray deadpanned, not particularly interested in what Natsu and Lisanna were planning on doing with the egg.

"So, how are we supposed to make it hatch?" Natsu asked, having no clue on what they were supposed to do."

"I think you just need to warm it up," Lisanna mused.

"For real?!" Natsu said with a wide, almost demonic, grin, "Then it looks like I'm the right man for the job!"

To everyone's collective shock and horror, Natsu picked up the large egg and released a weak, but still dangerously hot, Fire Dragon's Roar upon. Had it not been for everyone else's immediate reactions, the egg surely would have met the same fate as that morning's pantry stock.

"Not like that Natsu!" Lisanna cried in horror.

"Are you stupid?!" Gray yelled as he dropkicked the Fire Mage away and secured the fire egg.

As soon as the egg was safe, Shirou immediately Projected a fire blanket and threw it where Natsu was previously roasting the unfortunate egg, putting out the remaining flames scattered across the floor.

"Okay, you need help way more than I originally anticipated," Shirou sighed in relief as the remaining flames were extinguished.

"Geez! We're trying to hatch the egg, not poach it!" Lisanna reprimanded her hot-headed friend.

"Yeah, you're right," Natsu apologize in shame, "Sorry."

"Just sit back and let my magic handle this," Lisanna declared.

Beneath Lisanna's feet, a pink magic circle appeared and ingulfed her in light. When the light faded, her entire body had transformed. Gone was the little girl with white hair and a pink dress. She now stood before everyone in the form of a large bird with beautiful green and pink feathers.

"Woah! Amazing!" Natsu cried in awe.

"Oh, I get it! You're going to keep that egg warm just like birds do," Gray deduced.

"That's right," Lisanna replied as she wrapped her wings around the egg, "They're experts at hatching eggs."

"Wow! You're so smart!" Natsu complimented.

As he watched his little sister and her friend fawn over their egg, Shirou couldn't help but smile to himself. It had been quite some time since he had seen Lisanna this excited over something. Something he missed the most during his time as a mercenary was being able to see moments like this, the moments when a look of wonder and discovery adorned his baby sister's face.

However, those moments were equally contrasted by the ones currently experienced by his little brother, Elfman. Off to the side, Shirou noticed that Elfman had been staring Natsu and Lisanna with eyes full of sadness and longing. His older brother instincts going off, Shirou quickly moved over to speak with his only brother.

"Hey, little man," Shirou greeted, kneeling down to meet his brother at eye level, "Why the long face?"

"Mira-nee and Lisanna have already mastered the Full Body Take-Over, but I'm still having trouble with it," Elfman confessed, "I'm a sucky mage."

"Come on, don't be like that," Shirou encouraged, "I still haven't figured out the Full Body Take-Over either. Heck, I can't even manage a Partial Take-Over."

"But you can still do a whole ton of cool magic," Elfman pointed out, "If I could do the things you and everyone else can do, I could turn into a bird and go look for my parakeet."

"Parakeet?" Shirou inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"I adopted him not too long after we arrived at the guild. We used to be the best of friends, but he flew away and I never saw him again," Elfman explained, "It happened just a week before you showed up at the guild."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Shirou replied comfortingly.

"Man, I wish I had an egg to take care off like they did," Elfman sighed, sounding depressed.

While Shirou tried to think of something to cheer his little brother up, he heard a rather loud commotion coming from where Natsu and Lisanna were hatching their egg.

"Hey, why don't we take the egg to the park?" Lisanna suggested, "That way we can hatch it in an area filled with much more nature."

"What are we waiting around here for then? Let's go!" Natsu cheered as he grabbed the egg off the ground and ran out of the guildhall.

"Natsu, be careful! We don't want to drop it!" Lisanna reprimanded as she flew after the boy.

Seeing that Natsu was more than likely going to need a bit more than a little supervision, Shirou quickly developed a plan he was sure was going to make everyone happy. It would teach Natsu a bit about being constructive, give Lisanna the explorative experience she had been craving, and cheer up Elfman by giving him something to think about other than his lost pet. All Shirou needed was the time off to put his plan into motion.

"Hey, Elfman," Shirou said, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder, "I think I know just the thing to cheer you up. If you can hang on until after the lunch rush, we can do it together. What do you say?"

Trusting his older brother's judgement, Elfman replied with a quiet nod. Happy with his response, Shirou gave his little brother another quick pat on the back before returning to the kitchen. He still had a long lunch rush in front of him before he could enact his plan. He could only hope that Natsu and Lisanna didn't get into too much trouble before then.

* * *

Towards the southern side of the town as Magnolia South Gate Park, a place of greenery within the suburban reaches of Magnolia Town easily spotted by it's massive centerpiece tree. Underneath said tree were Natsu and Lisanna, eagerly waiting for their supposed dragon egg to hatch. Or rather, Natsu was eagerly watching Lisanna hug the egg in her Bird Soul Transformation in her attempt to hatch the egg, leading to some rather awkward tension between the two children.

"You're starting to make me nervous," Lisanna complained as Natsu continued to eye the egg.

"So, the egg will hatch if we just sit here?" Natsu asked, seemingly ignoring his friend's discomfort.

"Mhm," Lisanna nodded, "It gets kind of boring though."

As if hearing Lisanna's complaints, the egg visibly began moving, a clear indication that it was alive and well. Like a married couple noticing their unborn baby kick, the pair of children initially met this discovery with joy and excitement. However, things quickly got too exciting when the egg moved so much that it ended up jumping out of Lisanna's wings and knocking her away, forcing her back to her human form. As if it had a mind of its own, the egg bounced into Natsu's arms before ceasing all movement.

"Huh, seems to have calmed down," Natsu noted, closely inspecting the egg to make sure it wasn't damaged.

"Hey, maybe the egg is trying to say something," Lisanna deduced, "Maybe it wants you to warm it up instead."

"Really? You think so?" the Dragon Slayer inquired.

"Yeah! Doesn't it seem happier now?" Lisanna pointed out.

"Hey, egg, do you want to be with me?" Natsu asked in turn.

His response was a couple of happy chirps created from the creature inside tapping against its egg walls.

"I think it said yes!" Natsu cried in joy, making his own interpretation of the sounds.

"See, what'd I tell you?" the young Take-Over Mage cheered.

"Right as always!" the Dragon Slayer laughed.

"Oh, I have an idea! Why don't we build the egg a little house?" Lisanna suggested.

"Like a secret base?!" Natsu asked in reply, immediately on board with the idea.

Taking the egg to the just outside the East Forest, Natsu and Lisanna took turns attempting to build a house to hatch the egg in. Natsu's attempt was as crude as one might expect. The house he built amounted to a hollow pile of boulders he had ripped out of the ground with his bare hands. The "house" was as structurally sound as a house of cards and as deadly as an avalanche, collapsing in on itself mere seconds after Natsu placed the final boulder.

Lisanna's attempt was much more skillful and thought out compared to Natsu's, but anything was better than the disaster of a building the Dragon Slayer created. Using her giant Rabbit Soul Transformation, the youngest Strauss sibling constructed a small hut from straw branches. It was plenty sturdy, and even if it did collapse it was unlikely to hurt anybody. Despite being a small hut, the interior was rather spacious, more than enough to accommodate the two children and their egg.

"It's kind of like we're a family now," Lisanna mused.

"How do you figure?" Natsu asked, confused.

"Well, you've got a mommy and a daddy, and the egg is like our little baby that hasn't been born yet," Lisanna explained cheerfully.

"… I guess that doesn't sound so bad," Natsu chuckled after a moment, blushing.

Lisanna did the same, unable to stop herself from smiling at the thought. She had always found Natsu to be a pretty interesting boy. He could be brash at times, but he was also extremely friendly and the stories he always shared about the dragon that raised him fascinated her to no end. Really, having Natsu be a part of her extended family in Fairy Tail was nothing but a pleasure to her.

"How about we try warming the egg together," Lisanna suggested, hugging the egg in the center of the hut from one side.

"Oh, okay," Natsu agreed, hugging the egg from the other side.

As they sat there keeping the egg warm, both children could feel the gentle warmth of a developing life. It was a pleasant experience, one made more so by the company of a close friend.

* * *

Back at the guildhall, word had gotten around about the supposed dragon's egg Natsu had found and how he and Lisanna were busy trying to hatch it. Pretty much everyone in the guildhall was talking about the egg and its caretakers in some capacity. The likes of aspiring intellectuals like Jellal displayed intrigue at the prospect of a dragon's egg, while more gossip savvy members like Wally and Sorano joked about the pair of child mages being romantically involved. However, there were those like Laxus who took these stories with a rather large grain of salt.

"You kidding me? A dragon's egg?" Laxus scoffed, "Don't tell me you believe in all that garbage."

"I don't know," Macao shrugged, "Natsu said he was raised by a dragon, so why not?"

"Yeah, like I'd buy that," the lightning mage snarked.

"I will admit, I'm skeptical about the egg being that of a dragon's myself," Shirou injected, wearing his usual pink apron and carrying with him a small bento box, "Still, even if it's not a dragon in that egg, there's definitely something special waiting to come out."

"I still don't buy it," Laxus sighed, "Besides, dragons have been extinct of a long time. No one has seen a dragon for hundreds of years. Even if they are still around, don't you think someone would have noticed a huge ass, city leveling dragon hanging around a forest next to a town with some of the best tourist traffic in the country?"

"Wait, if dragons have been extinct for such a long time, how could Natsu know Fire Dragon Slayer Magic?" Shirou inquired, "He said he learned it from a dragon since the style was simply dragon's magic in the hands of humans."

"There are other means to learn certain forms of magic besides being taught," Laxus replied dismissively, "The brat probably just told people he was raised by a dragon to get attention. I mean, I guess it worked if he's basically dating your baby sister at this point given how close they got because of her interest in his stories, but that's beside the point."

'Is there really some way to learn magic without being taught?' Shirou pondered to himself, 'Something like a Magic Crest? I thought those were something exclusive to the previous world.'

"By the way, do you have my take-out order ready?" Laxus asked abruptly, shaking Shirou out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. One bento box of Karaage Deep-fried Chicken, fresh from the kitchen," Shirou replied, handing over the box, "That should make for a suitable dinner for your overnight job."

"You sure you don't want to come along on this one? The company would sure make this job a lot less boring," Laxus inquired.

"Sorry, I already have plans for today," the resident cook apologized, "Family matters."

"You're not planning on roughing up Natsu are you?" Wakaba asked with a hit of concern.

"Why would I do that?" Shirou asked in turn, tilting his head in confusion.

"Well, Natsu has been getting pretty close to Lisanna lately, even more so now that they have that egg they're hatching together," Wakaba pointed out, "Lisanna even build a little house to protect it. That egg may well be your nephew."

"Really? That's so cute," Macao cooed.

"Aw, puppy love," Wakaba gushed, "It's like they're a little married couple."

"Man you guys are lame," Laxus scoffed as he walked away, "I'm leaving before I barf in my mouth. See you tomorrow, Shirou."

"Later, Laxus," Shirou replied with a wave before quickly turning his attention back to the young pair of men in front of him in exasperation, "And you'd think I'd beat up Natsu for that? What exactly do you take me for?"

"An overprotective older brother," Macao replied, failing to notice the rhetorical nature of the question.

"Doesn't that kind of reaction seem a little off brand for me?" Shirou asked with even more obvious sarcasm.

"This coming from the guy that cloaked his little sister in a blanket just because one of her magical transformations put her in a swimsuit, and a pretty tame one at that," Wakaba snarked in reply.

"Hey, I was just adhering to an article in our Family Contract that she insisted on including," Shirou countered.

"Exactly our point!" Wakaba accused, "You're so protective of your family that you have a whole contract with rules and guidelines to keep them safe! Last I heard, that thing was 113 articles long! Surely one of them involves the people that your siblings date!"

"Well, there is Article 100: All boyfriends and girlfriends must be given approval by the rest of the family," Shirou mused, before shaking his head in frustration, "But that's beside the point. I know Natsu can be pretty brash, but I can tell he's a good kid a heart."

"Enough to earn approval from everyone?" Macao rose an eyebrow, "I'm pretty sure Mira has more than a few problems with him."

"Elfman seems to like him well enough," Shirou shrugged, "Speaking of which, where is Elfman? The lunch rush just died down and we arranged to meet and do something together once it did."

"I think I saw him heading towards the edge of the East Forest a little while ago," Wakaba informed, "Actually, I'm pretty sure that's also where Natsu and Lisanna built their little house."

"Is that so," Shirou mused as he took off his apron, "Thanks, Wakaba. Master Makarov, I'm taking the rest of the day off!"

With no resistance from the generous guild master, Shirou quickly made his way out of the guildhall on his search for his missing brother, all while ignoring the barely suppressed chuckles of his fellow guild members joking about him trying to keep the young Salamander away from his little sister.

* * *

After a few minutes of searching the boarder of the East Forest, Shirou came across a small straw hut that he could only assume to be the house he had heard Lisanna had built for the egg. Not too far away hiding in the surrounding shrubbery was a boy with tan skin and white hair and dressed in a tidy suit.

"Elfman?" Shirou asked in confusion, "What are you doing out here?"

"Oh! Shirou-nii!" Elfman jumped in surprise, "I didn't see you there. I was just watching Natsu and Lisanna take care of their egg."

"Why not just up to them and ask to help?" Shirou inquired, "You did say you wished you had an egg to take care of like they did, and I'm sure they'd be more then welcome of the help."

"I… didn't want to intrude," Elfman admitted sheepishly, "They seemed to be having fun, so I didn't want to disturb them."

"Well, I guess this lines up with what I had planned to begin with," Shirou sighed, scratching the back of his head.

"How so?" Elfman asked, tilting his head.

In response, Shirou Projected a pair of binoculars and handed them to his brother. He then Projected a second set of binoculars and sat down next to his brother in the shrubbery, raising his pair up to his eyes.

"We are going to keep an eye on your sister and Natsu to make sure they don't get themselves into trouble," Shirou replied, a look of brotherly protectiveness evident in his eyes.

"You don't really think Natsu would do something to hurt Lisanna, do you?" Elfman asked wearily.

"Of course not!" Shirou answered, offended, "What I'm worried about is that Natsu might do something stupid that could get them hurt. You know how he can be. In a way, it's like we're also protecting the egg by protecting its caretakers."

"So, what now?" Elfman inquired, confusingly inspecting the binoculars handed to him.

"Just sit back and keep a close eye on them," Shirou instructed, already focusing on the pair inside the straw hut, "We'll intervene when necessary."

Although unsure about the extent to which Shirou wanted to observe the egg and its caretakers, Elfman merely shrugged and rose his own pair of binoculars to his eyes. It was really no different from what he was doing before. He now just had a pair of binoculars curtesy of his brother to help him do the job.

While it was true that Shirou wanted to make sure Natsu and Lisanna stayed out of trouble, he also had an ulterior motive. He knew for a fact that the egg was magical in nature, but he couldn't quite figure out what kind of creature would hatch from it. If it was a dragon, it could be a very volatile one that will require some assistance in restraining. If it was some sort of baby monster, Natsu and Lisanna might be caught off guard and unable to defend themselves. Overall, it was not a risk Shirou was willing to take.

As the pair of brothers watched their younger sister and her friend warm their egg with a hug, they noticed Lisanna raise her hand and offer her pinky finger to Natsu. Curious as to what could be going on, Shirou enhanced his hearing by applying Reinforcement Magic to his ears, allowing him to listen in on what was supposed to be a private conversation.

It was rather sweet how honest the two children were capable of being with one another. With how they spoke, it was almost as if they had known each other for their entire lives, or at the very least shared an extensive history. It was like how siblings spoke to one another or how spouses confided in each other. Master Makarov always said that members of the guild saw eachother as family, and the relationship between Natsu and Lisanna was solid proof of that. However, it made Shirou question his own position within the guild's family.

When he first joined the guild, Shirou did so because the family he thought he had lost had been a part of it. Even before learning that his family were members, the guild master had welcomed him to the guild with open arms saying that the guild was a place for lost souls like himself to heal and find some place to belong. As he stood now, Shirou's place was with his family, and thus with the Fairy Tail Guild. But what would he do if they chose to leave. He knew his days of acting as his family's father figure were numbered. In a couple of years, Mirajane, Elfman, and Lisanna would all be old enough to make life choices for themselves. If they decided they wanted to leave the guild, it was not his place to stop them. What would he do if they did decide to leave? While he was sure that the guild would still welcome him as family, did he feel the same way? As he was now, Shirou lived for his family. It was the thing that made him happy, that gave him purpose. Would caring for the rest of Fairy Tail give him the same happiness that his siblings did? Would he go back to wandering Earthland aimlessly as an empty mercenary? He knew that he couldn't follow them through life forever.

"Hey, Shirou-nii," Elfman whisper yelled, pulling Shirou away from his thoughts.

"Hm? Oh, sorry Elfman," Shirou apologized, "It something the matter?"

"Natsu and Lisanna are on the move," Elfman replied, pointing towards the now empty hut, "They're taking the egg to the East Forest to show Lisanna where Natsu found it. I've been trying to tell you for the last few minutes, but you were in a complete daze."

"Really? Sorry about that," Shirou apologized again, chuckling at his uncharacteristic lack of focus, "Come on, let's follow them before they get too far away, but not too closely. We don't to ruin their fun now, do we?"

Following Natsu and Lisanna into the East Forest, Shirou and Elfman discovered for themselves where exactly Natsu had found the egg. Based on what they overhead of Natsu's story, the egg had fallen out of a tree that he had been punching earlier that day. Closer inspection of the tree revealed it to have a wooden plank tied to it with two crudely drawn pictures of Gray and Erza attached to it. It didn't take Shirou's structural analysis to tell why Natsu was punching the tree in the first place.

While Shirou couldn't help but shake his head in mild disappointment at Natsu childish antics, he couldn't deny that there was some genius to it. For one, while the act of punching a tree was a rather childish and immature manner of venting anger, it did make for some pretty solid training. For Natsu in particular, it helped him in his physical strength and in focusing his anger. From what Natsu had explained to him in the past, Fire Dragon Slayer Magic was unique among many forms of magic in that it derived a lot of its power from emotions, especially those that correlate with aspects of fire like anger and passion. With the Flames of Emotion, Natsu's magic grew more powerful the more intense these particular emotions became, so learning to better focus those emotions was a must. With any luck and some more focused training, it might be what Natsu needs to grow stronger and cause less collateral damage.

Before Shirou could think further on the topic of Natsu's pseudo-training and how to implement it into Natsu's personalized training regiment, he noticed a loud thud come from deeper in the forest. Looking around, it was evident that he wasn't the only one that noticed the sound, as Elfman, Lisanna, and Natsu all turned towards the source of the sound. Coming out from behind the dense trees of the forest was a creature that Shirou had grown quite familiar with, a Gorian. Ever since that first mission with Laxus, Shirou had studied up on Gorian behavior out of fear that more of the monsters might settle closer to Magnolia and endanger his family. In those studies, he learned a rather mundane but important fact about the monsters' diets, their favorite food is eggs.

"Hey, give it to me boy!" the monster demanded, his mouth watering as he eyed the giant egg in Natsu's arms.

"Yeah, fat chance!" Natsu yelled defiantly as he handed the egg over to Lisanna, "You really want to eat something? How about my fist!?"

Rushing at the gorilla-esque monster, Natsu threw hard punch at the Gorian's stomach. However, he failed to do any damage as the monster had some seriously strong abs.

"Hey, that kind of tickles," the monster mocked.

"You asked for it!" Natsu cried as he unleashed a fury of punches on the Gorian's abs.

His efforts were rewarded with a slap from the Gorian that sent him bouncing off several trees before landing at Lisanna's feet.

"Shirou, is this the part where we make ourselves known and help?" Elfman asked timidly.

"I would say so, yes," Shirou answered, Projecting his bow and a single arrow.

With a well-placed shot, Shirou could end the fight right there. An arrow to head and the Gorian would be dead, never to bother anyone present until its soul found another unfortunate host to possess. Pulling back the bow string, Shirou took aim and prepared to kill the beast there but stopped when he heard Natsu and Lisanna's cries.

"You're hurt, let me help you!" Lisanna begged, unable to bare watching her friend get hurt.

"No…," Natsu denied, picking himself up off the ground, "Just stay back."

"But why?" Lisanna asked in confusion.

"Because I'm the dad, and I have to protect my family," Natsu declared, stepping up to face the Gorian once again.

The Strauss siblings present to hear this declaration were stunned by what they had heard. When Lisanna first proposed that Natsu, the egg, and herself were a family, she had only meant that as a joke and had by no means meant it literally. Fairy Tail was a big extended family, yes, but that didn't mean she considered everyone family in the same way that she did with Shirou, Mirajane, and Elfman. Seeing Natsu so determined to protect her and the egg on his own when he had no real obligation to do so in such a way.

Similarly, Shirou could hardly believe what he was seeing from Natsu. When he first met the Dragon Slayer, he had taken him for a headstrong but good-natured kid with a good heart. This display against a monster he had no real chance of beating showed just how deep that good nature. On the surface, the confrontation appeared to be the result of misguided bravado on part of an easily aggravated child. But deep down, it was an act of heroism with the intention of protecting something personally dear to him and others. It was an act that Shirou could admire, having lived two lives now in which he had done the same.

In that moment, Shirou couldn't bring himself to fire the arrow. Yes, it would have been much quicker and less dangerous to simply kill the Gorian himself, but he needed to see Natsu handle it. The Dragon Slayer had a wish; a wish to be able to protect those he called his family. Shirou could sympathize with that and as such couldn't bring himself to deny Natsu the chance to make that wish a reality with his own two hands. Although he did not release the tension on his bow string, Shirou did change his target from the Gorian's head.

"Besides, I'm just getting warmed up!" Natsu yelled defiantly, "I'm the son of a dragon, you know! I won't lose to a monkey!"

Once again, Natsu leaped headfirst at the Gorian, his fists chambered back for a series of punches. Just like the last time, this attack was met with an effortless counterattack from the monster that sent the young Dragon Slayer bouncing off several trees. Shirou and Elfman winced a bit at the sight, feeling sorry for the pink-haired boy. While Shirou admired Natsu's resolve, that last move was undeniably stupid.

"Natsu, hit him with your magic!" Lisanna cried, confused as to why her friend had only been fighting barehanded so far.

"If this ape wants to fight with his fists, then that's how I'm going to beat him!" Natsu declared, unsteadily picking himself off the ground once again.

"I'd like to see you try," the Gorian laughed confidently.

Wiping his chin, Natsu flashed a confident smirk and called the monster out, goading him to attack first.

"You better stop yapping and start fighting," Natsu taunted, "I'm gonna paint you white and send you back to Mount Hakobe!"

Not appreciating being compared to his mountain dwelling cousins, the Gorian leaped high into the air with a ferocious yell before rushing at Natsu with a wild kick. The young Dragon Slayer managed to block that attack and mitigate the damage, but the force still sent him flying through the forest, inbound to bounce of another tree, just like before. However, Natsu was a fast learner in battle, and getting knocked around the trees so many times by the monstrous monkey gave him an idea crazy enough to work.

Just as pervious bouts had proven, the Gorian had launched Natsu with enough force that he would bounce of trees multiple times at high speed before he finally hit the ground. However, this time Natsu took control of the situation and use the consistent bouncing to his advantage. Twisting himself in the air, he positioned himself so he would impact the upcoming tree feet-first. By doing so, he was able to jump off the side of the tree, adding to the bounce he would have already experienced from being kicked into said tree, and rocketed back at the Gorian at a breakneck pace.

Seeing what Natsu was planning, Shirou acted quickly to give the young Dragon Slayer an edge to help insure his victory. Discretely firing two arrows from his bow in quick succession, Shirou shot at the backs of the Gorian's legs, forcing him to fall to his knees, immobilizing him and leaving him open for a free attack from Natsu. With a loud bonk, Natsu headbutted the monstrous ape in the face, throwing the monster on his back and knocking him out in a single blow.

"You did it! You did it!" Lisanna cheered, clutching the egg close to her chest, oblivious to the outside help from her brother, "You saved the day!"

"Yeah, I know," Natsu boasted as he picked himself up off the ground, "Awesome, right?"

"What's wrong with your face!?" the young girl cried in horror upon seeing her friend's face, mangled by the rough headbutt he just pulled off.

Hidden in the bushes, Shirou fell back on his butt, releasing a breath he didn't realize he had been holding. For the most part, he didn't expect Natsu to be able to take down that Gorian given the massive difference in brute force between the two of them. But as Shirou had just seen, Natsu was a lot smarter than he originally gave him credit for. Not to mention his devotion for protecting those important to him. Now if only the Fire Dragon Slayer wasn't so prone to getting hurt so badly before making a comeback.

"Wow," Elfman sighed in awe, "Natsu was amazing out there. He took that Gorian down in one hit."

"Well, I wouldn't say he was all that amazing," Shirou chuckled as he watched Lisanna nurse Natsu's wounds from a distance, "He did get smacked around quite a bit before he landed the killing blow. Still, he definitely has potential."

"I wish I was even half as strong as Natsu is now," Elfman mused wistfully, "Then I can protect everyone if you happen to not be around, just like Natsu did."

"Don't worry, little man," Shirou encouraged as he tousled his little brother's hair, "You'll get there eventually. Who knows, maybe you'll surpass both of us some day."

"Thanks, Shirou-nii," Elfman laughed as he fixed his hair.

As he got to work straightening out his recently messed up hairdo, Elfman noticed that the top of his head was a bit wetter than he originally expected. A second later, he felt something wet fall on to the back of his hand. When he looked up, he saw that the sky had grown gray and the sun was lost behind the clouds. Shirou noticed the signs as well and immediately Projected a pair of umbrellas for the two of them. It looked like they were in for quite the downpour.

Sure enough, the rain came down hard the moment Shirou handed his brother an umbrella. From where they were hiding, they could Natsu and Lisanna already making a break for their straw hut at the edge of the forest, with Natsu holding the egg underneath his shirt to keep it safe from the rain. Once again, the pair of brothers trailed close behind to make sure that the two youngest of the group didn't get into too much trouble.

With relatively little hassle, Natsu and Lisanna were able to reach the safety of their straw hut with Shirou and Elfman once again claiming their previous hiding spot within the shrubbery. However, Lisanna did something rather strange when they first arrived.

"Hold on, wait here a sec," the young girl requested as she ran into the hut ahead of her friend.

"Huh?" Natsu asked in confusion as he watched his friend run ahead.

"Okay, come in!" Lisanna called out once she was properly situated.

"What's with her?" Natsu asked himself as he hurried inside.

Upon entering the small house, Natsu was happy greeted by Lisanna sitting in the dead center of it.

"Welcome back, dear," Lisanna greeted in a very housewife-esque manner.

"Oh uh, what?" Natsu asked, oblivious to the situation.

"I said, 'Welcome back, dear'," Lisanna stressed again, showing some slight irritation at Natsu's obliviousness.

"Oh! Uh," Natsu fumbled, pulled the egg out from under his shirt, "Hi honey, I'm home?"

Satisfied with the reply, Lisanna gave Natsu a blushed smile and giggle, which the Dragon Slayer returned.

Outside the hut, Shirou couldn't help but smile at the display of familiarity. It was nice that Lisanna got along so well with friends like Natsu, even if he was a bit on the headstrong side. Seeing as the rain didn't look like it was going to be stopping any time soon, Shirou Projected a larger beach umbrella and planted in in the ground underneath a nearby tree. Calling Elfman over, the two brothers huddled under the umbrella as they waited out the storm, keeping a Reinforced ear on their little sister the whole time.

* * *

Several hours went by, and the rain had showed no signs of stopping. It came down just as hard now as it did when it first started. Shirou and Elfman were still positioned underneath their Projected beach umbrella, with Shirou listening in on his sister and her friend as best he could through the rain.

"Good thing made it here. The rain isn't stopping," Lisanna mused as she and Natsu continued to hug the massive egg.

Suddenly, a loud growl could be heard over the rain, but it didn't come from outside. Rather, it was Natsu that let out the growl, or more specifically, his stomach.

"Heh, sorry," Natsu apologized, backing away from the egg and gripping his stomach in hunger and embarrassment.

"Hey, I've been wondering. You live alone, don't you?" Lisanna inquired.

"Yeah," Natsu replied rather easily.

"Then who cooks your meals for you?" the young girl asked again.

"I just eat at the guild," the Dragon Slayer replied again.

"So do you have to pay?"

"Sure do," Natsu lamented, "Why else do I work all the time? At least your brother's meals are well worth the price."

"I think it's kind of sad," Lisanna admitted, holding her cheek in thought.

"Well, of course you think that," Natsu lightly snarked, "You live with the guy, so you get to eat his meals for free all the time at home.

"You know, I could cook dinner for you some time if you'd like," the youngest Strauss sibling offered.

"Whoa! Really!?" Natsu asked excitedly, "That'd be awesome! I had no idea you could cook!"

"Yeah! Shirou-nii taught me everything I know," Lisanna boasted proudly, "Of course, I'm nowhere as good as he his. I don't even compare to my sister."

"Wait, hold on. You're telling me Mira actually cooks!?" Natsu asked in shock, "You mean like food, right!? Not small children!?"

The image of a sadistically smiling Mirajane brandishing kitchen knifes as weapons flashed in the young Dragon Slayer's terrified mind.

"Does Elfman cook too?" Natsu asked timidly.

"Yeah, of course he does!" Lisanna answered jubilantly, "Shirou-nii taught us all how to cook at a very young age."

The image of a gently smiling Elfman sautéing rice and vegetables while politely asking the food to cook well flashed in the now calm Dragon Slayer's mind.

"Actually, that's not strange at all," Natsu mused, "It actually kind of suits him."

Amidst all the talk of food, Natsu mind wandered into deeper territory regarding food. He's seen a whole ton of different types of food that were added to the menu ever since Shirou took on the role of head chef and bartender at the guildhall. Even growing up with Igneel, Natsu had never seen such a wide variety of ways to cooks things like fruits, vegetables, rice, meats, fish, and eggs. Even if Lisanna wasn't anywhere as close to Shirou's level as a cook as she claimed, he was sure she could do some amazing things if she had the right ingredients. For example, she could probably make a pretty amazing omelet if she had an egg like the one he had found in the forest.

"No! I'm not going to give you the egg!" Natsu cried in accusation, pulling the egg away from the young girl, "I bet it's Igneel's kid! I got to let it hatch! Don't you dare try to fry it up!"

"Don't jump to conclusions!" Lisanna yelled, clearly offended, "Now look here! I built this house so that we could raise the egg together, didn't I? I want it to hatch as much as you do."

"Then why'd you scare me like that, you jerk," Natsu shot back before drowning the egg in an excessive amount of cuddling.

"Even if you get mad and pick fights all the time, you still have a sweet side, don't you?" Lisanna mused, "Just like Mira."

"Huh?" Natsu paused from his cuddling, caught of guard by the unthinkable claim that Mirajane of all people had a sweet side.

"It's been fun playing house with you," Lisanna beamed with a wide smile, "Maybe some day I could be your real wife?"

"Wh-what got you thinking about that!?" Natsu stuttered, blushing profusely at the question.

"I just noticed how strong and brave you are and you're good with kids too," Lisanna swooned, holding her cheeks, "What's not to like?"

"Y-you think so?" the Dragon Slayer asked in embarrassment, his face becoming the same shade of red as his shirt.

"What are you getting so embarrassed about?" Lisanna sighed calmly, "I was just making a joke."

"Ah! I know the word for you!" Natsu yelled furiously at the reveal that he had been doped, "Gramps calls me it! Nuvejile!"

"You mean 'juvenile'?" Lisanna giggled under her breath, "Geez, you're one to talk."

"Ugh! No fair! Why do you got to be smarter than me!?" Natsu cried in anger, furiously scratching at his scalp in frustration.

Having heard the entire exchange from outside, Shirou couldn't help but chuckle at the pair's chemistry. Lisanna was special among Natsu's friends in that while she was able to get him mad much like anyone else would, she was the one person that Natsu never seemed to lash out at. In addition, she seemed to be the only person besides Master Makarov whom Natsu is completely open. Shirou knew all about how the two of them first became close from the banter circulating around the guild, which was later confirmed when he traced the history of Lisanna's red umbrella. In a similar vein, Natsu was special among Lisanna's friends in that his stories were always the ones she had the most interest in; constantly mystified by the tales of a powerful but caring Fire Dragon King.

Now that the thought about it, Shirou couldn't help but notice the parallels between the pair of children and the Chinese idiom, "the tiger and the dragon". As the idiom goes, the tiger and the dragon are beings that couldn't possibly be any more opposite but at the same time were perfectly equal. The tiger was headstrong and straightforward, preferring to bulldoze through its opposition. By contrast, the dragon was patient and wise, preferring to observe first and form a winning strategy before they act. Ironically enough, it was Natsu, the Dragon Slayer, the most closely resembled the tiger and Lisanna, whose preferred transformation was her Take-Over: Cat Soul, who most closely resembled the dragon.

While lost in his thoughts, Shirou had failed to notice that the rain had stopped and that Natsu and Lisanna had exited their straw house. Thankfully, he had the ever vigilant Elfman by his side to shake him out of his own mind and back to reality.

Once again aware of his surroundings, Shirou looked westward to see Natsu and Lisanna standing outside of their little house. Following their gazes, he saw what he could only describe as one of, if not the, most beautiful sunsets he has ever seen in either of his lifetimes. The sun was peeking over the distant mountain ranges, bathing everything in yellow and orange light. The way the light reflected off the surrounding hills and greenery was simply divine, making Shirou feel more at ease then he had ever been before.

"Wow!" Lisanna sighed in awe as she and Natsu stared into the distance, "It's so pretty."

"it sure is," Natsu agreed, too focused on the sunset to make eye contact.

"It'd be nice to stay like this forever, don't you think?" Lisanna mused, savoring every moment that the view was in front of her.

"Yeah," Natsu mumbled, "Being able to see this view no matter what happens, it seems nice."

However, the universe seemed to have other plans in mind. Inside the house was the sound of something tapping against something hard yet brittle. Rushing back into their hut, Natsu and Lisanna were overjoyed to see that their egg was so active. It was a clear sign that the egg was sure to hatch soon.

* * *

When night fell, Natsu and Lisanna opted to sleep in their straw house so they could keep the egg in its home and guard it at the same time. What they failed to account for was with both of them sleeping, no one would be there to keep the egg warm during the night. In addition, they forgot to give the egg some sort of alternative for warmth, having only brought along enough bedspreads for the two of them. Thus, Natsu and Lisanna had condemned their egg to freeze to death overnight. At least, that's what would have happened had they not been watched by Shirou and Elfman all day.

"Figured they would end up doing something light this," Shirou sighed as he carried the egg through the streets of Magnolia, "So excited to take care of this thing that they forgot to get the basic necessities."

"So, what are we doing now, Shirou-nii," Elfman asked, following closely behind.

"Getting those basic necessities," Shirou replied, stopping in front of a certain store.

In the store windows, items such as cradles, stuffed animals, and highchairs could be seen on display. It was Magnolia's local baby store, the one stop shop for new parents and their families to get everything they need to properly raise an infant.

"Do me a favor and wait here with the egg, Elfman," Shirou instructed, handing the large egg over to his little brother.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come in with you?" the young man asked in uncertainty.

"I'll be fine. This shouldn't take long," Shirou insisted, "Besides, its cold out tonight and I need someone to make sure this egg stays warm. You can do that, right little man? After all, a real man knows how to persevere and hold their ground."

"O-okay, Shiroun-nii," Elfman nodded affirmatively with a hint of anxiety, "I'll do my best."

Smiling at his brother's timid enthusiasm, Shirou quickly entered the store to collect the essentials for the soon to hatch creature. Whether or not it's a dragon inside that egg remains to be seen. Making his way through the store's many aisles, Shirou collected a variety of baby goods in a shopping basket, including a swaddling blanket, a bottle set, and baby formula. Once he as sure he had everything, he took his basket to the cashier and started checking out. The cashier looked vaguely familiar to Shriou, being a woman about his age with brown eyes and short, shoulder length hair. The way she held herself could best be described as strong, but her overall appearance also made her come off as pretty.

Seeing this woman, Shirou couldn't help but feel like something was off. The cashier and everything about her shared an uncanny resemblance to someone he had known in his previous life, but he couldn't quite place the name. Everything from the looks to the way she held herself lined up, as if the previous person had died on Earth and been reincarnated in Earthland in the same way he was.

"Are you an expecting parent?" the cashier asked as she started ringing up the goods.

"Nah. Never even had a wife," Shirou clarified, "I've never had the best luck with women."

"Really? You look like the kind of guy a lot of girls would fight over," the cashier teased, "Then again, you do look a bit young to be a father."

"Well, I have no trouble getting women's attention. The issue is keeping it," Shirou admitted sheepishly, "I usually end up making them so mad that they dump me, or I accidentally push them away emotionally and they leave."

"So, you're a strong, handsome bachelor that can't get women to stay," the woman giggled, "If that's the case, why are you here buying everything you need to raise a newborn?"

"It's all for my sister," Shirou explained, "She adopted a baby recently so I'm picking up some stuff for her."

"Ah, so you're trying to be a good uncle," the cashier deduced with a smirk.

"I guess you could say that," Shirou chuckled.

"If that's the case, then your eligible for this special promotion we're having," the cashier announced, ducking underneath the counter.

When she came back up, she was holding what appeared to be a men's t-shirt. Overall, it was a rather plain article of clothing, boiling down to a simple blue t-shirt. However, it did have one defining feature, and that was the print on the front. Dead center on the chest of the shirt were the words "Best Unkle" written upside down. Clearly, it was a novelty item intended for new uncles.

"Every uncle or expecting uncle who makes a purchase this month gets a free 'Best Unkle' t-shirt," the cashier explained jubilantly, "All we need is your shirt size."

"I really don't need that," Shirou insisted, having never been one of novelty items, "I'll pass, thank you very much."

"If you don't take the shirt, I won't finish ringing you up," the cashier threatened with a deceptively sweet smile, "Also, you're holding up the line."

Looking behind him, Shirou saw at least half a dozen angry women behind him, and at least half of them were visibly pregnant. He knew better than anyone the scorn of an angry woman, and if the rumors were true, an angry pregnant woman was several times worse. He did not want to have to deal with that today, or any day for that matter.

"I'm a size large," Shirou sighed, conceding defeat, "Just please finish ringing me up."

"With pleasure," the cashier replied, pulling out another shirt from behind the counter and placing it in Shirou's bag, "That will be 65,000 Jewels."

"This is extortion, you know that right?" Shirou deadpanned, handing the cashier a 100,000 Jewel bill.

"I prefer to think of it as teasing flirting," the cashier giggled, handing Shirou his change, as well as a folded piece of paper.

"That was flirting?" Shirou asked in confusion, inspecting the extra piece of paper to see a ten-digit number.

"Strong, handsome, fun to tease, and dense. You're just the full package, aren't you?" the cashier giggle, "The paper has my Communication Lacrima Number. I rang you up, so return the favor and ring me up some time."

"But why? I don't even know your name."

"Um, because you're fun to talk to and I find you interesting? I thought you had experience with women," the cashier teased, "If names are the issue, then you can call me Ayako. See? Problem solved. Now all you have to do is give me your name in return."

'Ah, that was the name. This is just getting weird,' Shirou thought to himself after having discovered yet another inhabitant of Earthland that resembles someone he knew in his previous life, even sharing the same name.

"And what if I refuse to give my name and chose to never contact you ever again, Ayako-san?" the former mercenary challenged.

"Then I'll keep your shopping over on this side of the counter and leave you to the scorn of all the increasingly impatient women in the line behind you," Ayako replied smirking, hiding Shirou's shopping under the counter.

Looking behind him, Shirou saw that the line had grown to be twice as long as before with three out of every four women in the line being visibly pregnant.

"… Shirou," he answered, his head lowered in reluctant acceptance, "My name is Shirou."

"Pleasure to meet you, Shirou-san," Ayako smiled, handing over the shopping bag, "I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of each other in the future."

"And I rue the day we meet again," Shirou snarked, grumpily trudging away from the check-out counter.

"Oh, snarky. You really are the full package, aren't you?" Ayako giggled, getting one last tease in before Shirou left the store.

When he stepped outside, Shirou found Elfman sitting on the curb outside the store, clutching the egg close to his chest. Looking over his shoulder, Elfman quickly got up and rushed to meet his brother, a look of worry plastered on his face.

"Hey Elfman," Shirou greeted, "I see you kept the egg nice and warm."

"What took you so long?" Elfman asked in concern, "You were in there for quite a while."

"I really don't want to talk about it," Shirou sighed in a tired voice, "Let's just get home so we can properly take care of this egg, alright?"

* * *

The next morning in the Fairy Tail Guildhall was utter chaos. After waking up that morning to find their egg missing from their straw house, Natsu and Lisanna went around interrogating everyone they knew in hopes of finding some clue of the egg's whereabouts. Or rather, Natsu went around accusing everyone of stealing the egg while Lisanna politely asked everyone if they had any idea of what could have happened.

Pretty much everyone's answer was the same, they didn't know anything about the egg's location or its kidnapper. Unfortunately, frustration turned to anger when some harsh words from Mira sent Natsu into a rage. From there, anger turned to violence as Natsu attacked the older girl, inevitably dragging the rest of the children present into another senseless brawl. Thankfully, Erza was able to break up the fight rather quickly and painlessly.

However, tensions were still high within the guildhall since the question of the egg's location still remained unanswered and continued insults and accusations pitted the children against one another. However, that was soon released once a certain pair of brothers entered the guildhall.

"Hey, what's all the commotion about?" Shirou demanded as he and Elfman entered the guildhall.

"Not now, Shirou!" Natsu yelled in frustration as he stared at the floor in despair, "We're in the middle of a crisis here! Someone stole my egg in my sleep!"

"Well, look up and your crisis will be over," Shirou instructed calmly with a hint of levity.

"Why would… The egg!" Natsu cried upon seeing what was in Shirou's hands, "Why do you have it!?"

"And why is it in a swaddling blanket?" Gray asked, noticing the egg's latest accessory, standing in only his underwear as per usual.

"I figure that Natsu and Lisanna might forget something critical when taking care of the egg, so Elfman and I checked on them when the night fell," Shirou explained, "Sure enough, they were fast asleep without giving the egg something to keep it warm, so Elfman and I took it into town to keep it warm and get it some supplies."

"So you've been taking care of it all night?" Natsu asked hopefully.

"Actually, it was Elfman that kept it warm for most of the night," Shirou admitted, "I just paid for all the next equipment."

"You two are the best brothers ever!" Lisanna cheered with glee, "Thank you both so much!"

"It was nothing," Elfman insisted sheepishly, handing over a baby bag to his little sister, "This bag has everything you will need to take care of the egg and whatever hatches out of it."

"Wow! You two thought of everything, huh?" Natsu said in awe.

"Just being a good uncle," Shirou chuckled, handing the egg over to Natsu, revealing himself to be wearing the "Best Unkle" shirt from last night.

"Nice shirt," Laxus joked with a smirk.

"The store was having a promotion," Shirou shrugged, "Besides, I couldn't let a perfectly good shirt go to waste."

Suddenly, a cracking sound was heard throughout the guildhall, catching everyone's attention. As for the source of the sound, it was the egg, whose shell had just formed a massive crack on its top. Undoubtedly excited for what was coming next, Natsu set the egg down in the middle of the guildhall so it could hatch. By now, everyone in the guildhall had gathered around the egg to see it hatch, either out of curiosity or genuine excitement.

After a few more shakes, the egg jumped into the air and shattered, revealing a ball of bright blue light. When the light faded, flying above everyone's heads was a light blue kitten with small, white, feathery wings.

"A kitty!" Millianna cheered, barely held back by a clearly struggling Wally.

"It has wings! Is it a bird?" Natsu asked in amazement.

"No, it's a cat! A blue cat!" Lisanna corrected as she and the rest of the guild watched the kitty flutter around the room.

Being a newborn, the kitten struggled to remain airborne with its tiny wings. Unable to properly maintain its flight, the kitten slowly descended before landing on Natsu's head, its wings disappearing in a blink of light a second after landing.

"Aye!" the kitten squeaked, sitting up and raising his right paw in a waving manner.

"He's so cute!" Lisanna cooed.

"I know!" a majority of the guild cried out.

Soon enough, the entire guild had mobbed the small kitten taking turns holding him in their arms and admiring his cuteness. Amidst all the commotion, a blue parakeet flew into the guildhall and landed on Elfman's shoulder. Seeing the small bird, the young man cheered for joy, believing his best friend to have come home. But, as Mira pointed out in one of her and Erza's few civilized conversations, Elfman had somehow forgotten than the parakeet he had lost was red, much to the two older girls' amusement.

"You see that?" Lisanna said, looping her arm around Natsu's arm, "A minute ago, everyone here was all worked up, but now they're all happy! He's almost like a blue bird of happiness, isn't he?"

"Happiness, huh?" Natsu mused, holding the small kitten in his arms, "Well, in that case I'll name him Happy!"

"Aye!" the newly dubbed Happy cried, as if approving of the name.

"Happy the Dragon!" Natsu cheered, dancing for joy with the newborn kitten in his arms.

"It's not a dragon," Erza pointed out, baffled by Natsu's moment of stupidity.

"Congratulations, Shirou, you just became the uncle of a cat," Laxus joked, a lighthearted smirk visible on his face.

However, Shirou didn't care for the jab at his family dynamic. As he watched Natsu dance about with Happy in his arms, he could feel nothing but joy at the sight. As unconventional as it may be, the family created in Fairy Tail was a welcome one that continued to grow. Seeing Natsu and Lisanna so happy over the arrival of Happy was proof of how much of a family the members of the guild could be. Maybe, just maybe, Shirou could learn to see the rest of the guild as family the same way his siblings did. Maybe then, he will never have to walk alone.

* * *

 **Special End Card Segment: Animan Temple**

 **"Hello everyone! Once again, welcome back to our Special End Card Segment, the Animan Temple," a man in a red jacket brandishing a massive sword cheered, "Once again, I'm your host, Animan von Elysium X! Along with me is my good friend and cohost, Ray O'Neill, and my rival and sword sister, Taiga Fujimura!"**

 **"Great to see you all again," the masked man known as Ray greeted with a calm wave of his hand,"**

 **"Man, it sure is great to be full sized again!" Taiga laughed.**

 **"So happy we were able to fix that," Student Number 1, Illya, beamed.**

 **"You really should be more careful with that sword, Master," Priestess Number 1, Himegami reprimanded.**

 **"Enough about the past! Let's all focus on the here and now! Like the chapter I had just written!" Animan demanded.**

 **"It certainly was longer than some of your previous works," Himegami mused.**

 **"Serial escalation. What are you going to do?" the master of the temple shrugged.**

 **"I liked the little Tiger and Dragon connection you pointed with Natsu and Lisanna," Taiga admitted, "Pretty neat how that all worked out.**

 **"Such a shame that Mashima never went anywhere with that," Illya lamented.**

 **Suddenly, the air within the temple dojo became ice cold. Turning towards the source of the sudden cold, the girls saw that Ray's eyes had ignited with blue flames and his whole body gave of a black aura of death. The cohost stared at his partner with a hutched back and hungry eyes, as if preparing to pounce and kill. Scared for their lives, the girls immediately huddled behind the master of the temple for shelter (or in Taiga's, a vantage point to easily throw Animan to the metaphorical wolves).**

 **"Was that Ayako Mitsuzuri I saw working the check-out counter?" Ray asked hopefully, his eyes practically supernovas.**

 **"Yes and no," Animan replied sheepishly, "She's someone like her, but not necessarily her. But don't worry, I have plans for her! She will surely become a reoccurring character."**

 **"Master, it looks like we're out of time," Himegami pointed out, directing everyone's attention to a nearby clock.**

 **"So it would seem," Animan nodded solemnly before suddenly yelled out the top of his lungs, "Well then, we'll just have to wait until next time to speak with you all again!"**

 **"Stick around for the next chapter!" Ray encouraged, "Long live the goddess Ayako Mitsuzuri!"**

 **"Chapter six! Hup! Chapter six! Hup!" Taiga chanted, swinging her Tora-Shinai wildly.**

 **"Bye-bye!" the two assistants waved.**


End file.
